Family Recipes

Scratch Recipe Notes

Alton Brown's Southern Biscuits Apple Crisp Apple Sauce Cake Banana Bread Banana Chocolate Chip Muffin Tops Banana Pudding Black Bean Queso Blond Brownies Butter Bistcuits Chinese Brown Sauce Chocolate Chunk Cookies Chocolate Topping Chocolate Vanilla Swirl Cheesecake Cilantro Lime Rice Crab Rangoon Crab Rangoon Dipping Sauce Crepe Diner Style Pancakes Double Chocolate Mint Dessert Easy Oreo Cheesecake House Cheese Blend Kentucky Butter Biscuits Kinda Sorta Queso Linzer Cookies Lo Mein Sauce Mexican Chicken Chili Mint Cream Layer New York Pizza Dough Nilla Wafer Cookies Oatmeal Raisin Cookies Pan Pizza Dough Pancakes Peach Pie Filling Peanut Butter Cookies Peanut Butter Frosting Pie Crust Pillows Pizza Process Pizza Sauce Popcorn Pregnant Smoothie Rubble Shortcake Sloppy Fries Stovetop Mac And Cheese Strawberry Shortcake Biscuits Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake Sweet Nutty Granola Symphony Brownies Tim's Cookie Dough Cookies Tim's Rice Krispy Treats Tres Leches Cake Triple Chocolate Cookies Vegetarian Chili Working Oatmeal

Alton Brown's Southern Biscuits

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
  2. Whisk together the dry ingredients
  3. Cut in the shortening and butter using a whisk until you have coarse crumbs
  4. Make a well and combine the buttermilk and the dry ingredients with a spoon
  5. Knead the dough in the bowl with your hands until no loose flour remains in the bowl
  6. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and gently knead it for a minute or so, until you have folded it and the dough is consistent
  7. Roll out the dough, then cut out as many biscuits rounds as you can, then fold the dough and repeat the process until no dough remains
  8. Place the cut out biscuits onto a biscuit sheet so that they barely touch
  9. Bake for 20 minutes

Apple Crisp

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 350
  2. Grease an 8x8x2 inch pan
  3. Spread apple slices evenly throughout pan
  4. Mix water, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl
  5. Pour cinnamon mixture over apples
  6. Mix sugar, flour, and butter in a bowl
  7. Spread crumb mixture over the apples
  8. Bake for 40 minutes or until crumb is golden brown

Apple Sauce Cake

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 300
  2. Cream the shortening, sugar, salt, and cinnamon
  3. Dissolve soda of baking into warm water
  4. Stir soda of baking mixture into apple sauce
  5. Mix the apple sauce mixture into the creamed base
  6. Stir in the flour
  7. Pour batter into a loaf pan
  8. Bake for 50 minutes or until the middle has set

Banana Bread

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 350
  2. Grease a 9x5x3 loaf pan. Line it with parchment, then grease the parchment
  3. In a large bowl, mash the bananas with the butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla
  4. In another bowl, stir together the ap flour, soda of baking, salt, and cinnamon
  5. Combine the nuts and chocolate chips, separate 1/4 of the mixture
  6. Gently fold the wet into the dry
  7. Gently fold in the 3/4 portion of mixins
  8. Pour the batter into the loaf pan
  9. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 mixins over the top of the batter
  10. Bake until the center temps between 200 and 205 degrees (a little over an hour)
  11. Let the load rest in it's pan for 15-20 minutes, then use the parchment to move it to a cooling rack

Notes

Modified from https://cafedelites.com/banana-bread/

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffin Tops

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees
  2. Mash the bananas in a large bowl
  3. Cream the butter and sugars together with the bananas
  4. Mix in the eggs, vanilla, and cinnamon
  5. Combine the ap flour, soda of baking, powder of baking, and salt
  6. Barely mix the dry into the wet
  7. Place Silpat liners on three half sheet trays
  8. Dish the batter evenly between the three trays, you should have 6 large muffin tops per tray
  9. Bake until edges are golden brown, ~11 minutes
  10. Move to a parchment paper lined cooling rack

Notes

These freeze well

Modified from https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/230482/banana-chocolate-chip-bread/

Banana Pudding

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Mash ripe banana into a bowl
  2. Stir in vanilla pudding mix
  3. Keep adding milk and stirring until milk doesn't immediately soak in when stirred.

Black Bean Queso

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Heat the oil in a saucepan
  2. Drain and rinse the canned beans
  3. Stir the beans into the oil until warm
  4. Stir the queso and cottage cheese into the beans until warm
  5. Stir in the cumin, dehydrated onion, and hot sauce
  6. Stir in the cornstarch slurry and bring to a boil
  7. Once thickened, serve immediately

Blond Brownies

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Heat oven to 325
  2. Cream the shortening, brown sugar, and eggs in a mixer
  3. Mix in the flour, powder of baking, salt, vanilla, and chocolate chips
  4. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown

Butter Bistcuits

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
  2. Mix together the dry ingredients
  3. Cut in the coconut oil and butter until coarse crumbs achieved
  4. Mix in buttermilk
  5. Knead until combined
  6. Cut out evenly sized biscuits
  7. Bake for 15 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean

Chinese Brown Sauce

Ingredients

Steps

  1. In a small bowl, whisk together the stock and cornstarch until starch clumps are dissolved
  2. Whisk the remaining ingredients into the bowl until combined
  3. Add to a hot wok/pan to cooked protein and veg
  4. Toss until sauce thickens

Notes

Add heat to taste. I like adding white pepper and chili sauces

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 350
  2. Brown the butter on the stove
  3. Pour the browned butter into a large bowl
  4. Whisk brown sugar, white sugar, and molasses into the browned butter
  5. Whisking the sugars should cool the butter enough that it won't scramble the eggs
  6. Whisk in egg, extra egg yolk, and vanilla
  7. Combine the ap flour, soda of baking, salt in a separate bowl
  8. Using a rubber spatula, fold the dry into the wet until just combined
  9. Fold in the chopped dark chocolate
  10. Divide dough into 18 portions (approximately 45 grams per cookie) across three lined sheet pans
  11. Try to get larger chunks of chocolate to face upward to improve final appearance
  12. Bake for 11 minutes, or until the edges start to brown
  13. Remove from the oven and place on a parchment lined cooling rack until cool

Chocolate Topping

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Microwave ingredients in a bowl, stirring every 30 seconds
  2. Stop microwaving once the mixture is smooth

Chocolate Vanilla Swirl Cheesecake

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 325
  2. Line a 13x9 baking pan with foil, leaving some foil hanging over the edge of the pan
  3. Mix cookie crumbs and butter
  4. Press crumb mixture into bottom of pan
  5. Bake for 10 minutes
  6. Beat cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until well blended
  7. Mix in sour cream
  8. Mix eggs in one at a time
  9. Set aside 1 cup of the cream cheese batter
  10. Mix melted chocolate into remaining batter
  11. Pour chocolate batter over the cooked crust
  12. Drop spoonfuls of set aside batter into the pan
  13. Cut through the batters multiple times using a dull knife to create a marbling effect
  14. Bake for 40 minutes or until the center is almost set
  15. Cool and then refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight

Cilantro Lime Rice

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Heat the oil in a pot
  2. Fry the rice in the oil until fragrant
  3. Stir in the better than boullion
  4. Stir in the water
  5. Cover the pot and simmer until the rice is soft
  6. Immediately before serving, stir in the cilantro and lime

Crab Rangoon

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Mix everything but the wontons in a bowl
  2. One wonton at a time, add 6-8 grams of filling to the wrapper
  3. Wet two edges of the wrapper and work all air out while closing.
  4. Wrap the three points beyond the wrapper to form a little pouch or envelope
  5. Freeze until ready to fry, or cook immediately
  6. Heat oil to 375 and an oven to keep warm with a sheet pan and cooling rack with paper towels
  7. Add a few wontons at a time to the oil, pull once desired browning acheived. Store in oven until all rangoon are cooked.
  8. Serve with Rangoon Dipping Sauce

Notes

Modified from Serious Eats

Crab Rangoon Dipping Sauce

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Combine vinegar, brown sugar, ketchup, chili flakes, and water in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, whisking to combine until sugar is dissolved
  2. Combine remaining tablespoon water and corn starch in a small bowl and whisk with a fork to form a slurry.
  3. Whisk slurry into the sauce and bring to a boil.
  4. Add the pineapple chunks and hit the whole pot with in immersion blender

Notes

Taken from Serious Eats

Crepe

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Whisk the eggs and milk together
  2. Add the rest of the ingredients and whisk until smooth
  3. Refrigerate at least one hour
  4. Heat a 10 inch nonstick skillet over medium
  5. Lightly grease with butter, wipe off excess
  6. If the batter is too thick to pour, thin it out with either milk or melted butter
  7. Hold the pan and pour in 1/3 cup of batter
  8. Immediately swirl the batter to evenly coat the bottom in a paper thin layer
  9. Cook until the top look dry, should take around 20 seconds
  10. Grab one edge of the crepe and cook on the second side for 10 seconds, or until edges start to brown

Notes

Based on Kenji's crêpe recipe

Diner Style Pancakes

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Mix all of the dry ingredients together.
  2. Preheat a griddle to 325
  3. Beat the egg white, buttermilk, egg, melted butter, and oil
  4. THoroughly mix the wet ingredients into the dry.
  5. Using a paper towel, spread a pad of butter on the griddle to create a barely visible coating of fat
  6. Pour the desired pancake size onto the griddle
  7. Flip the pancakes once the bottom edge starts to brown
  8. Serve immediately

Notes

The dry mix can be prepared long in advance and left to sit on a shelf in a container until the day comes when you want pancakes.

Double Chocolate Mint Dessert

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Heat oven to 350
  2. Grease a 13x9x2 inch pan
  3. In a mixing bowl, beat flour, sugar, butter, eggs, and syrup until smooth
  4. Pour batter into prepared pan
  5. Spread Mint Cream Layer on Cake
  6. Refrigerate until chilled
  7. Spread Chocolate topping over dessert until chilled

Subrecipes

Easy Oreo Cheesecake

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 325
  2. Pulse 30 oreo cookies in a food processor until finely ground
  3. Pulse in the melted butter to form a crumb
  4. Line a 13x9 inch baking pan with aluminum foil, leave some foil hanging over the edges of the pan
  5. Firmly press oreo crust into bottom of greased baking pan
  6. Beat cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until well blended
  7. Mix sour cream into cream cheese mixture
  8. Mix in eggs one at a time
  9. Chop remaining oreo cookies
  10. Gently fold 1 and 1/2 cups of chopped cookies into the cream cheese mixture
  11. Pour mixture into pan with the crust
  12. Sprinkle pan with the remaining chopped cookies
  13. Bake for 45 minutes or until the center is almost set
  14. Let the cheesecake cool and then refrigerate for at least 3 hours, preferabley overnight

House Cheese Blend

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Grate both cheeses
  2. Mix together in a ziploc bag

Kentucky Butter Biscuits

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 400
  2. Mix flour, powder of baking, soda of baking, salt, and sugar in a bowl
  3. Cut in butter and shortening until it forms coarse crumbs
  4. Stir in the buttermilk
  5. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until the dough barely comes together
  6. Cut out biscuits using a sharp cutter
  7. Place separated on a lined baking sheet
  8. Bake 13 minutes or until a tester comes out clean

Kinda Sorta Queso

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Melt the butter over low heat in a sauce pan
  2. Heat the milk in the melted butter
  3. Whisk in the powders
  4. Whisk in the kraft singles
  5. Whisk in the jalapeno juice

Linzer Cookies

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Combine the salt and flour in a bowl
  2. Cream the butter and powdered sugar together
  3. Mix egg yolk, vanilla extract, almond extract, and lemon zest into the creamed butter
  4. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet
  5. Tightly wrap the dough in plastic wrap
  6. Chill for at least two hours
  7. Remove the dough from the fridge
  8. Preheat the oven to 350
  9. Gently roll out on a floured surface to 1 cm thickness
  10. Cut the dough into 3 inch rounds
  11. Using a 1 inch cutter, remove the center from half of the rounds
  12. Reroll scraps and continue process until all usable cookies are shaped
  13. Bake the cookies for 14 minutes
  14. Move cookies to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely
  15. Spread two teaspoons of jam on each base cookie, top with the ring cookie
  16. Cookies can be enjoyed immediately, but improve with an overnight rest to allow absorption of jam moisture

Lo Mein Sauce

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Bring all igredients to a simmer in a pot

Notes

My sticky note only had ingredients, not amounts. This should be eye-balled on the next attempt. After that, update the recipe.

I also use this as a ramen base, but omit the sugar

Mexican Chicken Chili

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Chop the celery, carrots, and onions
  2. Simmer the celery, carrots, and onions in the cup of chicken stock
  3. Remove andouille from casing and cut into bite size pieces
  4. Add andoille to the pot
  5. Once cooked, add remaining ingredients
  6. Stir frequently and simmer
  7. Remove from heat and allow to cool in fridge overnight to allow the flavors to mingle

Notes

This is a large amount of chili. I recommend speeding the cooling process by putting the pot into an ice bath (use the kitchen sink) after it sits on the stove for an hour. Then it goes right into the fridge.

Mint Cream Layer

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Beat ingredients in a mixing bowl until smooth

New York Pizza Dough

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Combine dry ingredients in a KitchenAid mixer on low with a dough hook
  2. Add the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined
  3. Scrape the sides of the bowl and knead on high speed for 10 minutes, or until the dough becomes smooth to the touch
  4. Store the dough in an oiled bowl
  5. Refrigerate the dough at least overnight, best after two to three days.
  6. When using the dough, make sure to allow it to come up to room temperature before working, at least an hour or two

Notes

Modified from Serious Eats.

Nilla Wafer Cookies

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  2. Cream white sugar and powdered sugar into the butter using a whisk attachment
  3. Mix in the vanilla and milk
  4. Using a spatula, gently stir the ap flour and salt into the creamed mixture
  5. Transfer the dough to a pastry bag and pipe into mini 1/2 inch rounds. The dough will not spread much, if at all.
  6. Bake for 11-12 minutes, until the edges are starting to brown
  7. Remove the cookies to a cooling rack

Notes

Modified from https://bakingamoment.com/homemade-vanilla-wafers/

This dough cannot be mixed by hand. There is too much liquid being emulsified into fat to do it manually.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 350
  2. Cream butter, white sugar, brown sugar, and mollases
  3. Mix in vanilla pudding powder, vanilla extract, and egg
  4. Combine ap flour, salt, soda of baking, cinnamon, and oats in a bowl
  5. Mix the dry into the wet until just combined
  6. Gently stir raisins until incorporated
  7. Wearing latex gloves, roll the dough into twelve equal balls
  8. Place the dough balls evenly on a cookie sheet
  9. Bake for 13 minutes
  10. Immediately move to a cooling rack

Notes

Not sure about toasting the oats vs baking them raw

Pan Pizza Dough

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Combine dry ingredients in a food processor
  2. Pulse three to four times until combined
  3. Add wet ingredients and process for 15 seconds
  4. Process an additional 15 seconds
  5. Bring the dough together into a smooth ball
  6. Tightly cover the dough in an oiled metal bowl
  7. Let the dough rise in the fridge for 1-3 days
  8. Split the ball into thirds and store each portion in a quart container
  9. Use immediately, or freeze for up to two months

Notes

Modified from Serious Eats.

Pancakes

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Preheat a griddle to 325
  2. Preheat oven to "Keep warm" setting with a cooling rack on a sheet pan
  3. Combine dry ingredients in bowl
  4. In an imersion blender column, whip the white of an egg to stiff peaks
  5. In a second glass bowl, melt the butter
  6. Stir the buttermilk, egg yolk, and sour cream into the melted butter
  7. Gently fold the whipped egg whites into the wet mix
  8. Gently combine the wet mix into the dry mix
  9. Dish pancakes out onto the griddle at desired size
  10. Once cooked through, keep warm in oven

Notes

Taken from Serious Eats.

The sour cream can be substituted 1 to 1 with more buttermilk, but the final texture won't be quite as fluffy

Peach Pie Filling

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Add the frozen peaches and water to a large pan
  2. Stirring occasionally, bring the pan to a simmer and then cover
  3. While the peaches come up to temperature, combine the white sugar, brown sugar, salt, corn starch, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a large bowl
  4. Once the peaches are mostly softened, dump them into the bowl of dry ingredients and combine everything
  5. Add the lemon juice and vanilla to the mixture and combine
  6. Dump the bowl's contents back into the pan and simmer
  7. Once the filling reaches your desired thickness and the peaches reach the desired softness, and the hot filling to a prebaked pie crust

Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 350
  2. Brown the butter on the stove
  3. Pour the browned butter into a large bowl
  4. Whisk brown sugar, white sugar, and molasses into the browned butter
  5. Whisking the sugars should cool the butter enough that it won't scramble the eggs
  6. Whisk in egg, extra egg yolk, vanilla, and peanut butter
  7. Combine the ap flour, soda of baking, salt in a separate bowl
  8. Using a rubber spatula, fold the dry into the wet until just combined
  9. Divide dough into 18 portions (approximately 45 grams per cookie) across three lined sheet pans
  10. Using a dinner fork, press hatch marks into each cookie to improve final texture
  11. Bake for 11 minutes, or until the edges start to brown
  12. Remove from the oven and place on a parchment lined cooling rack until cool

Peanut Butter Frosting

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Whip all ingredients together until they form a stiff frosting

Pie Crust

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Mix the ap flour, salt, and sugar in a large bowl
  2. Cut the shortening and butter together into the dry ingredients until they form crumbs
  3. Combine the ice cubes, water, and vodka
  4. Two tablespoons at a time, add the liquid into the crumbs and gently fold
  5. Stop adding liquid once the dough comes together
  6. Split into two discs (~393 grams each), wrap in plastic wrap, and refridgerate overnight

Notes

The dough will require a lot of flour when rolling out. Don't be afraid to use more than you think is needed and take it slow.

Pillows

Ingredients

Steps

  1. The mixins will determine what kind of pillow you make. My favorite is 2 cups of frozen blueberries. We have also had success with 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips. Anything you would use to flavor a muffin should work great
  2. Preheat oven to 400
  3. In a bowl, stir the flour, soda of baking, and salt together
  4. In a separate large bowl, whisk the splenda and eggs together until splenda is evenly distributed
  5. Whisk in the vanilla, applesauce, and greek yogurt
  6. Using a spatula, gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet mix. Do not overwork the batter.
  7. Gently fold the mixins into the batter
  8. Using an ice cream disher, drop 12 gobs of batter onto two foiled and greased sheet pans
  9. Bake until the pillows are just starting to turn golden (15 to 20 minutes, depending on the choice of mixins)
  10. Move the cooked pillows to a wire rack
  11. Once cooled, store in refrigerator for up to one week.
  12. Before serving, toast the pillow to reconstitute it.

Pizza Process

Ingredients

Steps

Notes

Making pizza at home involves a number of small steps that need to be executed perfectly.

First, I like to make a big batch of dough and freeze until needed. For a nice fluffy pie, I will use 1/2 a batch of Keni's Pan Pizza Dough. Not the 1/3rd from the recipe. Move the dough from the freezer to the fridge (still in the quart container) the day before you want to make a pie.

Two to three hours (depending on room temperature), move the fridge dough to the counter. Open the container and cover with plastic wrap.

One hour before you want to make a pizza, put a 1/2 inch pizza steel near the top of a gas oven. It should be just low enough so that a pie can slide in with clearance for the broiler. Set the temperature to 550. Put a sheet pan under the steel to catch any extra cornmeal.

While the stone is preheating, make a batch of Pizza Sauce, shred some low moisture full fat mozz, and put some pepperoni in a little dish. Having all the igredients ready makes the final steps work. If you aren't prepared, then the dough will stick to the peel.

Get a little dish of course cornmeal and a second little dish of AP Flour. Bring out your largest cutting board. Place a pizza peel on the board and top the peel with parchment paper. Flour the parchment paper. Flour a rolling pin.

Make sure the steel is hot enough to cook the pie. You want an infared thermometer to read at least 500 degrees on a couple surface points. Note that if you go above 600, then the dough will burn, so this recipe doesn't work on a grill.

Using the rolling pin, and reflouring as needed, work the dough into an even thickness round on the parchment. Once desired thickness is acheieved, sprinkle the dough with a generous coating of cornmeal. Remove the peel from under the dough. Flip the peel and put it on the cornmeal side of the dough. Use the parchment paper to quickly flip the peel and dough over, landing the cornmeal side of the dough on the peel.

Test moving the dough. If anything sticks (especially near the lip of the dough), then toss a heavy pinch of cornmeal under it. Note that when testing the dough's movement, all that should be required is a light touch. If you need to use too much force, then cornmeal is needed. Otherwise, the ingredients will slide all over the place.

Over the course of about 30 seconds, add a light amount of sauce to the dough. It should almost touch the edge of the round. Test the dough's ability to move and add cornmeal if needed. Sprinkle 1/4 pound of shreed mozzarella over the sauce. Test the dough's ability to move and add cornmeal if needed. Fill in sauce and cheese gaps with pepperoni. Do not overload on toppings. Test the dough's ability to move and add cornmeal if needed.

If the dough is mobile, then gently slide it in little flicks onto the pizza steel. Make sure to load as far back as possible to avoid the pizza overhanging the front of the steel. Turn the heat off on the oven and set the broiler to high.

Optionally set aside a couple small dipping dishes with extra sauce. These will be used for dunking the crust of each slice after eating.

The pizza will be fully cooked within 10 minutes, but go by look and smell. I often give the pie a turn or two while cooking, and switch off the broiler once the toppings reach desired doneness. The most important tell is that the bottom of the pie is taking on a nice peopard spotting appearance.

Set the pie on a cooling rack over the previously used parchment paper. Leave it here for a minute or two to allow steam to escape, locking in that crispy crust. While allowing steam to escape, sprinkle the pie with dried oregano and micrograte parm and pecorino over the top

Once ready to serve, use the peel to move the pizza back to the large cutting board. Use a sharp round pizza cutter to make the desired number of slices. With my 1/2 dough recipe, I like 6 big slices.

Previous Attempts

Note that this current list is the result of years of making pizzas in a gas oven. Every tool, ingredient, and step is essential. Leave anything out, and the entire pie will be subpar.

One major step that finalized this process was switching from parchment paper to cornmeal. Parchment paper makes getting the pie in the oven much easier. However, you need to pull it out before it lights on fire.

That little bit of time to pull the pie out and let heat escape results in a weaker rise and a less flavorful pie.

I wanted to try course semolina, but I couldn't find it anywhere around me. After trying cornmeal, I am certain all my favorite pizza joints were using cornmeal on their doughs.

You want to flour the dough as little as possible when shaping it on the peel. Otherwise it will develop a poor tasting thin layer of unhydrated flour that will make the pizza taste raw and bitter.

I have tried to make NY style super thin pizzas, but that will be a different write up. I like to roll for this method because it gives a better height across the entire pie.

Pizza Sauce

Ingredients

Steps

  1. In a tall container, dump the can of tomatoes
  2. Using your hands, gently break the tomoatoes apart. Make sure to leave some large chunks, don't get it too soupy.
  3. Stir in the olive oil, salt, and basil
  4. Use immediately, or fridge for a couple of weeks

Notes

{'step': 'If it gets too hot out, it can be impossible to find good Basil. I have subbed in squeeze tubes of Basil paste (to taste) in a pinch and it worked great.'}

Popcorn

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Heat the oil over a medium flame
  2. Add three kernels to the pot
  3. Once they pop, add the remaining kernels
  4. Microwave the ghee in a small bowl for 35 seconds
  5. Vigorously shake the popcorn and frequently allow steam to escape
  6. As soon as the popping noises stop, dump the pot's contents into a large bowl
  7. Evenly pour the ghee over the popcorn
  8. Evenly spinkle the salt over the popcorn
  9. Toss the bowl a few times until well mixed

Mods

Cheesy Popcorn

Make the normal recipe, then toss in 50 grams of cheddar powder. Top with 1 ounce finely shredded cheddar cheese.

Pregnant Smoothie

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Add the ingredients in the order listed to a high power blender.
  2. Blend until uniform and smooth
  3. Divide into two servings

Notes

The ingredients are listed in the order they enter the blender.

You can substitute 40 grams of fresh veg for the 100 grams of frozen

Kathryn always drank this when she was in the first trimester. It is easier to vomit a smoothie than a handful of granola.

Rubble

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Melt the butter in a pot
  2. On low heat, melt the marshmallow into the butter
  3. Melt in the peanut butter and dark chocolate
  4. Remove from heat and stir in the rice krispy
  5. Cover your fingers in coconut oil
  6. Pinch portions of dough and shape them into rough balls
  7. Combine the cocoa powder, powdered sugar, and salt in a tupperware container
  8. In batches small enough to fit in the container, add balls into the powder mix and shake to coat
  9. Refrigerate the coated balls

Shortcake

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 350
  2. Grease an 8 inch baking dish
  3. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl
  4. Cut in butter and mix until coarse crumbs form
  5. Using a spoon, barely stir the milk into the course crumbs until it just comes together
  6. Spread the batter into the baking dish and tap a few times to uneven air pockets
  7. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a wooden skewer comes out clean
  8. Cool completely before covering, use within 5 days

Notes

This is a reverse engineered recipe based on Andy's Frozen Custard Strawberry Shortcake Sundae. It yeilds a baked good halfway between a cake and a biscuit. The current recipe is a little pale and slightly too fluffy.

Sloppy Fries

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Prepare the fries as instructed on the bag
  2. While the fries are cooking, brown the ground beef in a pan
  3. Once the beef is browned, add the manwich sauce to the pan. Cover and barely simmer.
  4. While the fries continue cooking, combine the olive oil, garlic, parsley, and salt and pepper to taste in a large bowl
  5. Immediately after the fries are finished cooking, coat them evenly with the oil mixture by tossing them in the bowl
  6. Plate the fries and cover with a quick zig zag of ketchup
  7. Scoop the sloppy joe over the ketchuped fries
  8. Sprinkle the cheese blend over the sloppy joe mix
  9. Give the dish another quick zig zag of ketchup

Subrecipes

Stovetop Mac And Cheese

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Add the noodles and a few heavy pinches of salt to a medium pot
  2. Add enough water to cover 2 times the height of the noodles
  3. Bring the pot to a boil
  4. Once the noodles are al dente, drain them and set aside
  5. In the now empty pot, melt the ap flour and butter together to form a rue
  6. Whisk the contents and add each of the following ingredients one at a time until fully incorporated: cream, butter powder, cheese powder, cottage cheese
  7. Drizzle in milk while whisking until desired thiness is reached
  8. Add the grated cheese to the pot, stir until melted
  9. Stir in the cooked noodles.
  10. Add salt and pepper to taste

Notes

Do not use preshredded cheese. The dish will become gloopy instead of smooth.

Strawberry Shortcake Biscuits

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 450
  2. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl
  3. Spoon 12 biscuits onto a cookie sheet
  4. Bake for 12 to 12 minutes or until golden brown

Notes

Taken from Kathyrn's family recipe cards

Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 325
  2. Line a 13x9 baking pan with foil, hanging some over the edges
  3. Mix together crumbs, 3 tablespoons of sugar, and butter
  4. Press the crumb mixture into the bottom of the baking pan
  5. Beat cream cheese, remaining sugar, flour, and vanilla
  6. Mix in sour cream after other ingredients are blended
  7. Mix in one egg at a time
  8. Pour cream cheese mixture over crust in baking pan
  9. Gently drop spoonfuls of jam over the top of the batter
  10. Run a dull knife through the mixture several times to create a marbling effect
  11. Bake for 40 minutes or until the center is almost set
  12. Cool and then refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight

Sweet Nutty Granola

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees
  2. In a large bowl, stir together the oats, crispy cereal, pepitas, cashews, cinnamon, and salt
  3. In a second bowl, combine the peanut butter, vegetable oil, honey, light brown sugar, and almond extract
  4. Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry
  5. Divide the granola between two Silpat lined half sheet pans
  6. Bake for 20 minutes
  7. The granola will not have taken on much color, but will carry over while cooling
  8. Allow the granola to completely cool on the sheet pans

Symphony Brownies

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Prepare brownie batter as per instructions on the box
  2. Pour half of the batter into a 9x13 baking pan
  3. Place the three candy bars across the batter
  4. Pour the remaining batter into the pan
  5. Sprinkle chooped nuts over the batter
  6. Bake the brownies as per instructions on the box

Tim's Cookie Dough Cookies

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 350
  2. Mix flour, salt, pudding mix, and soda of baking in a small bowl
  3. Cream the light brown sugar and white sugar into the butter in a second, larger bowl with a silicone spatula
  4. Mix in egg and vanilla until air incorporates into the dough, making it lighter
  5. Barely mix the dry into the wet
  6. Gently fold in chocolate chips
  7. (Optional) Refrigerate the dough for at least 4 hours to improve flavor and texture
  8. Measure the dough and divide into 12-14 cookies (40-50g per cookie recommended)
  9. Evenly space the balls on the cookie sheet
  10. Bake the cookies for 12 minutes, or until the bottoms are barely golden brown
  11. Quickly move the cookies from the sheet pan onto a cooling rack lined with parchment

Notes

The cookies should appear slightly undercooked, do not put them back in the oven

This is an original recipe. I wanted a cookie that stayed soft for days in a row and felt like eating barely set cookie dough.

Mods

Gluten Free

Substitute the ap flour 1 to 1 with Namaste Perfect Flour Blend. Add 1 tablespoon / 15 grams of whole milk to the wet ingredients.

Chocolate Orange

Replace 1/2 the choc chips with chopped chocolate orange candy

Add a teaspoon of orange extract to the dough

Peanut Butter Kiss

Substitute butter and chocolate chips for 160g smooth peanut butter and 90g shortening. Double the salt. Double the white sugar.

Make cookies that are half the normal size (~24g). Bake for 9 minutes. Press kisses into cookies immediately after leaving oven.

Do not thumb print the cookie dough balls before baking.

There is conflicting data from when I did the trials for the PB cookie. I prefer the mod as written, but a lot of people liked a 50g shortening + 50g butter split instead of 90g shortening.

Butterscotch Chocolate Chip

Substitute 60 grams of the chocolate chips for butterscotch chips

Dark chocolate chunk cookies

Add an additional 10g of pudding mix (50g total)

Use 47 grams dark chocolate (72% cacao) (1 Trader Joe's bar) and 90 grams chocolate chips

Make the cookies as per the instructions

At the mixin stage, chop the cholate bar into large pieces

Separate the flakes from the chunks

Mix the chunks in with the chocolate chips

Equally distribute the large chunks on the top of each dough ball

Pull the cookies at the regular time, but let them cool on the tray for 4 minutes before moving to a rack

Date Night

Add 1 teaspoon of almond extract to the wet mix

Replace chocolate chips with 47g dark chocolate chunks, 33g choc chips, and 50g chopped dried dates

Tim's Rice Krispy Treats

Ingredients

Steps

  1. In a medium pot, melt the butter on the lowest heat setting
  2. Add the marshmallows to the pot
  3. Still on the lowest heat setting, stir the marshmallows until completely melted and mixed with the butter
  4. Take the pot off the heat, and quickly yet gently fold in the rice krispy cereal
  5. Immediately after the cereal is mixed, gently dump the mix into a greased 9 x 13 baking dish
  6. It is critical that you don't press the mix into the pan, but rather tap the mix gently to evently distribute
  7. Let the treats cool for 5 minutes, and then flip onto a greased cutting board
  8. After 30 minutes, the mix will have cooled enough for you to cut
  9. Cut the treats into 20 servings
  10. Once the treats are cool to the touch, they can be stored

Tres Leches Cake

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Follow the instructions on the box to prepare the cake
  2. Allow the cake to completely cool and leave it in the baking dish
  3. Combine the half and half, sweetened condensed milk, and evaporated milk in a bowl
  4. Use a bamboo skewer to poke holes evenly across the surface of the cake
  5. Pour the dairy mixture over the punctured cake
  6. Cover the baking dish and refrigerate at least over night

Triple Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 350
  2. In a stand mixer, cream the shortening, butter, white sugar, and brown sugar
  3. Mix in the egg, pudding mix, and vanilla
  4. In a separate bowl, gently whisk together the ap flour, cocoa, salt, and soda of baking
  5. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the stand mixer
  6. Stop mixing immediately after the flour is incorporated
  7. Gently fold in the chocolate chips
  8. Divide into twelve cookies between two sheets, expect minor spreading
  9. Bake for 11 minutes
  10. Pull the trays from oven, cool the cookies on the trays

Notes

The amount and kinds of fat make this a difficult recipe to mix by hand

Mods

Coco-Cuatro

Add 1 tablespoon milk to the wet mix

Replace chocolate chips with 47g dark chocolate chunks, 50g chopped pecans, and 33g choc chips

Vegetarian Chili

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Dice the carrots, sweet peppers, celery, and white onion. I dice each chunk of carrot and pepper to twice the volume of the celery and onion
  2. Add the diced aromatics to a large cold pot
  3. Splash the veggies with the cooking oil
  4. Sprinkle the salt, ground black pepper, garlic powder, and MSG into the pot
  5. Give everything a stir and bring the heat up to sweat the vegetables
  6. While sweating, remove the soy chorizo from its packaging and have at the ready
  7. Once a carrot is about half way to the doneness you prefer, stir in the soy chorizo. I look for the carrot to be just barely starting to soften to a fork
  8. Open and rinse the pinto, black, and kidney beans. Skipping the bean rinse will result in an unpleasant earthy flavor in the final prepped chili
  9. After the soy chorizo is brought to temperature and the pot begins sizzling again, stir in the rinsed beans
  10. Stir in the tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes, and diced tomatoes
  11. Stir in the chili seasoning
  12. Simmer for at least ten minutes before serving
  13. Best results will be obtained by allowing the chili to cool and then storing in the fridge at least overnight
  14. This chili goes great with a side of corn chips and a dollop of plain greek yogurt

Working Oatmeal

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Mix all of the ingredients in a large container
  2. Stick in the fridge overnight
  3. Dish out 1/10 of the mix (~250g frozen fruit or ~220g dried)
  4. Microwave each serving for 3 minutes 30 seconds

Notes

If using frozen fruit, add a drizzle of honey, maple syrup, etc

I like to make a big batch on Sunday night. Then we eat it throughout the week.

Mods

Use 750g of fresh fruit instead of 220g of fresh. Lower water to 1000g