O' Henry Bars

O'HENRY BARS

1 cup sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup corn syrup
1 cup cashews
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips
3 cups coco crispie cereal

I large bowl, mix peanut butter, cashews and coco crispies.
On stove in a small pot, stir together corn syrup and sugar.
Heat until boiling. Let boil one minute,
Then add to peanut butter, cashews and cereal.
Mix all together.
Pack firmly and evenly into lightly greased 9x13 pan.
On stove in a small separate pan, melt milk chocolate and butterscotch chips until smooth.
Stir constantly then pour over top of packed goods in pan.
Let cool, then eat!

LuDale Rose (who always brings the best treats in Relief Society!)

Homemade Chia Fruit Jam

Put away your canning equipment and bags of sugar, my friends. There's a new jam in town this summer, and its name is chia. Yes, using the gelling power of these tiny little seeds, we can transform a few cups of ripe fruit into a low-sugar, spreadable, spoonable jam in about 20 minutes. Here is what to do!

Chia seeds have come a long way since the chia pets of our youth. At some point in the last five years, we wised up to the fact that these little gray-colored seeds are way better as food than they ever were as pet of eternally growing hair— something the Aztecs figured out centuries ago.

If anything is a superfood, it's chia seeds. They're packed with omega-3 fatty acids, rich in fiber and protein, and — most important for our jam-making purposes — they turn any liquid into a thick gel. That's right — chia seeds will absorb several times their mass in liquid, creating a jelly-like substance in the process.

When making fruit jam with chia seeds, the seeds do all the work. Instead of cooking fruit down, relying on pectin, and adding sugar to help it set, like traditional jam, all you need to do is mash up some fruit and stir in a few tablespoons of chia seeds. Within a few minutes, the chia seeds will absorb the fruit juices and thicken it to a jammy consistency.

The best ratio of fruit to chia seeds is two cups of fruit to two tablespoons of chia seeds. Start with this ratio, then if your fruit was very juicy or you'd like a thicker consistency, stir in more chia seeds one teaspoon at a time.

Chia jam is a bit looser and more sauce-like than the kind of traditional, fully-cooked jam you buy at the store or make yourself when canning. It gets a bit thicker after some time in the fridge, but will never thicken to quite the same sturdy, sticky consistency of regular jam. But you can still spread it on toast, spoon it over yogurt, or stir it into oatmeal, just like usual!

Chia jam is — or at least can be — much less sweet than regular jam. Since we're not relying on sugar to help set the jam, we can add as much or as little sweetener as we want. Honey, agave, maple syrup, or regular sugar can also all be used.

For a more jam-like flavor and consistency, I recommend cooking the fruit briefly on the stovetop before mixing in the chia seeds. I think this helps extract the juices better than simply mashing the fruit in a bowl, and it also softens the fruit into a jammier texture. The color of cooked fruit is more vibrant and the flavor is more deeply fruity. If you'd rather skip this cooking step, expect your jam to be somewhat looser and more syrupy.

The chia seeds will stay visible in the jam after mixing. This isn't a big deal with darker-colored fruits or fruits that also have seeds, like strawberries and blackberries, but you might not want them speckling your jar of peach jam.

If you'd prefer not to have visible chia seeds in your finished jam, puree the jam in a blender or with an immersion blender. You'll still see some small flecks of seeds, but they will be much less obvious than before blending. If you'd like to keep a somewhat chunky texture, blend just a portion of the jam with the chia seeds, then stir it back in with the rest of the jam. Personally I don't care if I see little flecks of the seeds. 

That's it. Toss 2 Cups of your favorite berries into a blender with 2 Tbsp of chia seeds, add any sweetener if you like to the taste you prefer.  I add 2 Tbsp's of honey.  Happy Jamming!

Martha's Egg Wash for Beautiful Crusts

Martha Stewart:
An egg wash will give your pie crust a glossy finish, while a cream wash will give your pie crust more of a semigolden, mattelike finish. Skipping a wash altogether can leave your crust looking stark!

The general rule of thumb for egg wash is 1 well-beaten egg plus 1-2 tablespoons of water. Note: more water will lighten the golden color, or for a shinier pie, you can substitute the water with cream or milk.

Orange Mango Salad

I'm so sad I don't have a picture, but my Italian friend is going to make a cook out of me yet! Why didn't I think to take a picture? Next time I make it---Picture coming!

Salad Dressing
Ingredients:
1/3 cup White Vinegar
3/4 cup Vegetable Oil. Do not use Olive Oil or Canola Oil. Just regular Vegetable Oil.
1/3 cup Sugar
1/8 of a large onion or 1 TBSP finely grated onion
3/4 tsp Salt
1/8 cup Mustard

Blend all these ingredients together. Blend well so that onion is undetectable

Salad (This makes a large bowl)
Ingredients:
Butter Lettuce cleaned and fill bowl 3/4 of the way to top
3 11 oz cans Mandarin Oranges (fully drained)
1 pound Mozzarella Cheese
1 whole Chicken cooked, deboned, and shredded
1 cup whole Almonds cracked (Or you can use slivered Almonds. I liked the whole Almond cracked in pieces.)
3 TBSPS Sugar

You need to caramelize the Almonds. Do this by placing the 3 TBSPs of Sugar in small frying pan with the 1 cup cracked Almonds. Turn the heat on medium. Stir Almonds in the sugar until the sugar caramelizes around the almonds. The white in the sugar will slowly disappear as you stir. DO NOT BURN! When all the white is gone the Almonds are ready.

Place clean lettuce in bowl, top with Mandarin Oranges, Chicken, and Cheese. Sprinkle Almonds on top. Pour dressing over everything and toss well.

(You can double the dressing. I think I will the next time I make it. It's nice to have some extra!)

This salad is divine! Just like my friend!

CIAO

Teresa's Italian Rustic Bread

Some people are born to cook. That is my very dear friend Teresa! She is Italian. Cooking comes as easy to her as breathing. You should see the things she makes. I love her beyond measure and I love her cooking just as much! Perhaps it's because a little bit of her award winning personality is baked into every bite!

The other day she taught me how to make Rustic Bread. Now I just want to go to Italy and make it in some wonderful kitchen next to some beautiful wine vineyard. I made her promise me she would take me there some day. I can't wait! Until then I eat her bread and dream!

Ingredients:
3 cups of Bread Flour
1 1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 heaping tsp of Yeast (She likes Saf-Instant Yeast)
10 drops Do-Terra Rosemary Oil
1 1/2 cup warm water


Mix the yeast in the warm water and stir. Add all remaining ingredients and stir everything together. Once everything is mixed well, place plastic wrap over bowl and leave it over night. About 12 hrs.

Next Morning: Lightly flour your cutting board, take dough out of bowl. Need just a little and form into a nice round ball. Cover with a clean towel. Let sit about 1 hour. 30 min before the hour is up, turn your oven on 425 degrees. Place your stoneware pan and lid in oven for that 30 min. When the dough has sat and hour and the pan has heated in the oven the last 30 min of that hour, take the hot pan out, lightly flour the bottom of the pan, then add the dough. Place the lid on the pan and cook 1/2 hour. Take the lid off and cook another 3-5 min, until nice and brown. Cool and rest.

Grape Salad

All credit for this recipe goes to my cute little daughter in law! 

Missy, this is delicious. 

Hope you don't mind sharing it with the world!

Mix and cream the sour cream, sugar, vanilla.

Clean and pull grapes from stem.

Mix grapes in with creamed mixture.

Serve and sprinkle with Brown Sugar and pecans.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, this recipe!

Pearl's Homemade Ice Cream

My mother was a woman of simple means. She was a farmer's wife and her days consisted of hard work on the farm and more hard work in the house. Despite her labors with milking cows and every other chore that presents itself in a life of farming she still found time to cook and sew.  My mother was an amazing woman! With that being said, I should tell you she was not a woman who whipped up gourmet dishes, her cooking was small and simple just like her life.....  but, what ever my mother prepared in the kitchen, some how no matter what it was or how simple, it tasted divine.  It's peach canning season and I miss her. Peaches remind me of her. Check out her Mid-Winter Peach Cobbler pie. If you can handle the stress of her delicate crust , you will be close to heaven when you feast upon it.

Today though I'm sharing her Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream.  It's long been a Blanch and now a Crowther favorite! If you want to add peaches to it, go right ahead. In fact, add any fruit you like and I think it would taste good.  My family loves it plain or with peaches when they are in season and no matter the season, they will not allow me to make any other ice cream recipe.


*NOTE: THIS RECIPE IS FOR A 6 QUART ICE CREAM MAKER. Adjust some for a 4 Quart machine.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 Cup Sugar
2 TB lemon
2 TB Vanilla
2 Cans Eagle Brand Sweeten Condensed Milk
1 12 oz Can of Canned Milk
1 7oz Can of Canned Milk
9 Eggs
1 Pint Whipping Cream
Whole Milk added as needed to fill to the line
Generous Pinch of Salt

Three to four bags of crushed or cubed ice
About a 1/2 a gallon of rock salt. The kind you would add to a water softener. NOT TABLE SALT!

Whip the eggs, sugar, salt, lemon, vanilla, sweeten condensed milk, and canned milk together. Add remaining ingredients (EXCEPT for the WHOLE MILK) and whip together. Place whipped mixture in your Ice Cream container. Now add the Whole Milk! Add enough Whole Milk to bring the mixture to the FILL LINE on your container. Mix the whole milk into the completed mixture with a tall spoon. Your ingredients should now be to the fill line on your container. Now your mixture is ready for turning in your machine.

The trick to ice cream is how you add the rock salt to the crushed ice as the container spins. Add too little and your mixture will not thicken, add too much and your mixture will freeze up. I add about a two inch layer of ice, sprinkle the rock salt add another layer of ice sprinkle the salt, etc. until the ice is to the top of your container. Do not allow the ice to spill onto the top lid of the container. Your ice should not be taller than the container. Just keep it even with the height of your ice cream container. As the ice melts add more ice and sprinkle more rock salt.

I can't tell you exactly how long it takes to thicken. I would estimate between a half hour and an hour. I need to make it to remember. When the motor on your machine seizes up and the container won't turn anymore it's done. Unplug your machine, open the lid and take your paddle out of the container. Be careful not to let any of the salt water in. Once the paddle is out, top with ice, cover and let stand for fifteen min and then serve. By the way, we never pack it with ice and let it stand. No one has the patience to wait. We eat it thinner than letting it set up more. That's the law of the hungry beast. ha ha

NOTE! Never leave your machine unattended in the churning process. NEVER Always listen for the motor and stay close by, checking it frequently. Once your motor seizes up you've got to be right there or you will burn your motor up. I make mine in my laundry room sink so the salty mess is in my giant sink. This room is next to my kitchen, so I can hear my machine and keep an eagle eye on it in the churning process.

Enjoy! Think of my mom when everyone is devouring it!