Church compiles favorite recipes

If you had walked into my kitchen last Thursday afternoon, you would have wondered what in the world was going on.

I was sitting in a wheelchair, with a blue plastic bowl in my lap, cutting up apples for a dessert I was making. I scooted up the wheelchair to do a few tasks and stood a few times on my good leg, but I let my daughter do the rest, including putting the heavy pan into the oven for the dessert to bake.

Although this broken ankle of mine has set me back quite a bit, I’ve also been determined to do most of the things I want to do, and that includes trying a recipe from Daniels Chapel Free Will Baptist Church’s new cookbook, "Favorite Recipes.”

If you read my food column often, you know I always enjoy a good church cookbook, and this one is no exception. The Crossroads Sunday school class at Daniels Chapel assembled favorite recipes from two previous cookbooks as well as new recipes from members, families and friends for this book.

The spiral bound cookbook is filled with many recipes local cooks will enjoy trying — some you might have seen before at covered dish dinners or at family reunions and others that are very new.

I’ve told my son I’d try Sherri Whitley Jernigan’s healthy zuppa Toscana soup; he loves that soup at Olive Garden, and this version sounds very good and easy to make. And I know my family would love the baked potato cubes recipe Kathy Hayes submitted. The recipe sounds simple enough and would be such a good side dish to a beef main course. And if I could drive right now, I would have already gone out and bought the ingredients for one of the main course casseroles of chicken pies in this book.

The bread section is always one of my favorites in a cookbook. In this one, I left a marker for Debbie Lewis’ blueberry muffins sweetened with sugar and honey. There are plenty more blueberry recipes in the dessert section for those lucky folks with blueberry bushes in the backyard!

There are plenty of cakes in this cookbook, including Lillian Jackson’s chocolate chip cake which I’d like to try and Carolyn Barnes’ 10 layer chocolate cake. My family loves those multi-layered cakes with delicious chocolate frosting. They both sound delicious! And there are plenty of pies to go around, too, made with pecans and lemons and chocolate and so many more yummy things.

The recipe I made last week was Inez Etheridge’s delicious apple crunch. The recipe is very simple, with apples and a cake mix as the main ingredient. We ate the dessert as a crisp, served hot with vanilla ice cream. It was very sweet and very good.

Help out Daniels Chapel and purchase this cookbook. Call the church at 243-2013 for more information. The cookbook is $15. Proceeds will go to the church renovation project.


Delicious Apple Crunch

• 4 large cooking apples, peeled and cubed
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1 stick margarine

Place apples in 9x13-inch baking dish. Cover with water. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle dry cake mix over mixture. Melt margarine and pour over cake mix.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Delicious either warm or cold.

Inez Etheridge

*NOTE: I used brown sugar instead of granulated and cut it to 1/2 cup; I also used butter instead of margarine. This is very good served warm with vanilla ice cream.


Macaroni Beef Bake

• 4 ounces macaroni
• 1/2 pound ground beef
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup green pepper, diced
• 2 tablespoon flour
• 1 pound can tomatoes, undrained
• 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
• Salt and pepper to taste

Cook macaroni following package directions. Rinse in cold water and drain.

Brown beef, onions and pepper in skillet. Stir in flour. Add tomatoes and cook until mixture thickens. Stir in cheese, seasonings and macaroni.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.

Louellen Galloway

Don't heat up the kitchen

I love my slow cooker in the winter because it's always handy for soups and stews and roasts and everything that tastes good when it's cold outside. But I also love it in the summer because it keeps my kitchen cool while at the same time cooking my dinner!

For supper Monday, my family had a deliciously tender turkey breast, thanks to the miracle of a slow cooker. I cook a turkey breast this way quite often because I love the leftovers. The first night, I make hot turkey sandwiches or just serve the turkey with a few side dishes. During the week I make turkey salad at lunch, and by Wednesday or Thursday, we're ready for shredded turkey simmered in my homemade barbecue sauce.

But on Friday night, we dined on Sloppy Joes that cooked only four hours in a slow cooker. Once again, my kitchen didn't have to be heated up.

The Sloppy Joe recipe is one I found online at myrecipes.com. It was originally published in Southern Living three years ago. The recipe had a number of favorable reviews, so I decided to try it, making only a few changes.

This recipe uses not only ground beef but sausage as well. I don't use pork sausage very often, so I substituted turkey sausage. I also cut the brown sugar from 1/4 cup to 2 tablespoons, and, because I'm not a big fan, I used just a teaspoon of chili powder instead of a tablespoon.

I turned the slow cooker to low on the last hour of cooking and would probably cook it on low the entire time the next time I make it, but I seem to think my slow cooker cooks a little too hot. If you're home, just keep an eye on it.

This recipe yields a very thick, very tasty Sloppy Joe. We thought it was very good. My husband had seconds and ate another sandwich for lunch the next day. My son, Robert, sprinkled grated mozzarella cheese on his and said it was a good addition.

Robert goes back to college in a few weeks. He asked me over the weekend if I could make some of his favorite foods before he leaves. He said I'd been needing my Crockpot! I've included some of his favorites that would work well in this hot summer weather.



Slow-cooker Sloppy Joes

• 1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
• 1 (16-oz.) package ground pork sausage*
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/2 medium-size green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 (8-oz.) can tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons yellow mustard
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 8 hamburger buns, toasted

Brown beef and sausage with onion and bell pepper in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat, stirring 10 minutes or until beef and sausage crumble and are no longer pink. Drain well.

Place beef mixture in a 4 1/2-quart slow cooker. Stir in tomato sauce and next 9 ingredients. Cover and cook on HIGH 4 hours. Serve on hamburger buns.

Cooktop Method: Proceed with recipe as directed in Step 1, returning drained beef mixture to Dutch oven. Stir in tomato sauce and next 8 ingredients, omitting flour. Bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover, reduce heat to medium, and simmer, stirring occasionally, 30 minutes.

Prep: 15 min., Cook: 45 min.

Note: To freeze leftover Sloppy Joe mixture, let cool completely. Place in zip-top plastic freezer bags; lay bags flat, and stack in freezer. Freeze up to 1 month. Thaw overnight in the fridge, or defrost in the microwave.

Mandy Fugate, Orange City, Florida, Southern Living, April 2007

*Note: I used turkey sausage, and cut brown sugar to 2 tablespoons and chili powder to 1 teaspoon.



Slow Cooker Macaroni and Cheese

• 8 oz. box (2 cups) elbow macaroni (uncooked)
• 8 oz. light Velveeta, cut into cubes*
• 4 cups milk (I used 1 percent.)
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 teaspoon salt

Pour all ingredients into slow cooker and mix until combined. (I use a disposable, slow cooker liner to make for a very easy clean up. They are sold on the aisle with oven cooking bags.)

For best results, cook on low for 3 hours and high for 1 hour. If possible, mix every hour to keep from sticking. If you won’t be at home while it cooks, it will do fine without stirring and cooked on low for maybe 5 hours. I used to cook this on high for 4 hours but found it works best cooking slower.

* When I cannot find an 8 oz. light Velveeta. I cut the 16 oz. in half and save the other half for up to several weeks in the refrigerator.



Slow Cooker Turkey Breast

• Thawed turkey breast (make sure it’s a size that will fit your slow cooker*)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Place turkey breast in slow cooker. Be sure to remove the giblet or turkey bag if there is one. Do not add water to the slow cooker; it will make plenty of broth, I promise. Cook on low all day, around 8 hours. Don’t open lid while cooking.

*If the turkey breast is a little bit too tall and the lid won’t completely close when you place it in your slow cooker, don’t be too worried. When the breast starts to cook, it will shrink, and the lid will close.



Dilly Beef Sandwiches

• 1 boneless beef chuck roast or beef bottom round (3 to 4 pounds)
• 1 jar (16 ozs.) whole dill pickles, undrained
• 1/2 cup chili sauce
• 2 garlic cloves, minced (I omitted)
• 10 to 12 hamburger rolls, split

Cut roast in half and place in a slow cooker. Add pickles with juice, chili sauce* and garlic. Cover and cook on low for 8-9 hours or until beef is tender. Discard pickles. Remove roast.
When cool enough to handle, shred the meat. Return to the sauce and heat through. Using a slotted spoon, fill each bun with about 1/2 cup meat mixture.

Yields 10 to 12 servings.

*Note: You will find the chili sauce near the ketchup in your grocery store.