S for strawberry Shortcake.

I think we may have made these before, at least the shortcake part. The shortcake tasted familiar; the strawberry part not so much. You wouldn’t think the strawberries would be the something different; I mean its sugar and strawberries, but it was. Yes we used strawberries when making strawberry shortcake however we did not use nearly that much sugar.

I was a bit shocked when I saw the amount of sugar to strawberry ratio. It was one cup to a package of berries. That is more sugar then I put in a strawberry rhubarb pie and Rhubarb is tart, but I thought okay maybe I am wrong maybe this is a normal amount of sugar and we generally do it differently to save… I don’t know our teeth or something. When I eat strawberry shortcake that someone else has made or at a restaurant it does tend to be a bit sweeter than what I am used too, and I am trying to stick to the book so I did it, I soaked the berries in the sugar and waited the appropriate time, and while I waited I got started on the shortcake.


The shortcake was easy and pretty much what I am used too in a homemade shortcake. I did think they were a bit big, but the recipe said it made four so I went with that. I think usually when we made this it made eight and I think that is a more appropriate number for the amount of dough it makes, so future shortcakes will go back to being smaller, and then more people can eat them too!

Once the shortcake was out of the oven I had to do that torturous thing of waiting till everything is completely cooled. Why are deserts so hard to wait for? Seriously why?
Once everything was cooled I whipped up the whipping cream and to my absolute delight I didn’t mess it up. I have a tendency to either over whip, or under whip or add to much powdered sugar or cream of tartar; anyway Whipped cream has never been a strong suit of mine so the whipped cream made me proud this time.
So everything was good and ready to be assembled.

And here are my thoughts on the strawberries. WAY TO MUCH SUGAR! They were not nestled nicely in a fine syrup; no they were globed together in a gritty sludge. There was so much sugar there was no way it could all dissolve in the juices. I may have been able to dissolve it if I had heated the strawberries but that is not what the recipe called for, so I left it and made a mental note to myself to use a quarter of the sugar next time.

So yes the strawberry shortcake was good, even if it was a bit sweet and yes it will be made again with a few alterations but nothing that would change it too much; because no matter how I look at it I really like strawberry shortcake. Yum!

R for Raison-Apple muffins

These sounded amazing. I love muffins, I love anything with raisons baked in them, and I eat cheerios nearly every day. So everything about these seemed like the real deal but…


I don’t know if I did something wrong or if they were supposed to be like they turned out. To me they tasted a bit stale even fresh out of the oven. I know the cheerios I used were not stale as I had eaten them for breakfast, and everything else was good too. The only thing I can figure is I didn’t crush the cheerios fine enough and they dried out in the baking process.


The muffins also had little hard bits in them which I think were the bigger pieces of the cheerios. Now when I say bigger pieces keep in mind these were not big pieces at all I did crush them as finely as I could which to me looked fairly fine, however I did crush them in a bag with a rolling pin, when I probably should have used the food processor, but you know lessons learned. In the event I make them again I will use it.


I also thought they tasted too healthy for the amount of sugar in them. Most of the muffins I make call for less sugar yet taste sweeter. These also had the same amount of oil in them as a traditional recipe yet call for apple sauce, which normally is used to cut down on the fats. These definitely have that healthy taste to them, but without being any healthier so I thought that was a bit weird.

I also thought since they had apple in the name they should have apples in the recipe, either fresh or dried just something to go along with the apple sauce as apple sauce flavor tends to disappear into the background, something that definitely happened in this recipe.

I wasn’t really a fan of these and will probably stick to my old standby of Betty Crocker with the few tweaks I already use. I find if I use just a basic recipe, I can add whatever I like to it and they turn out wonderful every time.
Needless to say this recipe is not going to go into the list of staples.

Q for quick cheese burger pie

This is one of those recipes my mother wouldn’t let us make because she thought the ingredients sounded weird.
We would ask but the answer was always no. Until one day when we were teenagers my sister decided she was going to make cheeseburger pie. I don’t remember why she was cooking if she was simply doing it because she wanted too, or if this was during the brief point of time when my mother had us rotating dinner duty. In any case my sister didn’t ask she simply made it, and this as it turns out was the best recipe ever!

And the weird ingredient that my mother was so concerned about was actually the thing that makes this recipe the tops. And what was that ingredient? Pickle juice!

Now personally I don’t think pickle juice is weird but for some reason my mother did. But the Pickle juice and chopped pickles really make this taste like a burger. I really enjoy making this recipe. And yes even my mother came around, she loves it too.

This is a relatively easy straight forward recipe. Par bake the crust, Brown the meat with some other things, add the rest of the ingredients except half the cheese, spoon into crust, bake for a while then add the rest of the cheese and bake for 5 more minutes.


Due too not being able to eat beef I did make the change of using turkey burger but other than that I stick to the recipe. I do believe that is why it turns out so well, someone really thought this one through. And I love it.

Generally I eat it topped with ketchup and mustard just to really make the burger experience come alive.
And yes this is one to make over and over again.

P for Pizza pockets.

this turned out pretty good, I really enjoyed the crust, while I was not overly thrilled with the filling, but that is a personal opinion. I am not overly fond of that much meat in my pizza.
the recipe calls for pepperoni, and Italian sausage, and I happen to find one meat to be plenty. I know a lot of people are meat lovers when it comes to pizza though and may not find this to be meaty enough. while others will find this recipe just the perfect amount of meat.


for the sausage I used a ground turkey that was flavored with Italian spices. and the pepperoni was turkey as well. this is due to the fact I’m not supposed to eat pork. though I do have to admit I do sometimes splurge and eat a bit bacon but only a few times a year. for the most part I find ground turkey can replace any other ground meat, and the turkey pepperoni is fine though definitely has a different flavor then your traditional pepperoni.


the crust was easy to make, and yeast free so no waiting forever for it to rise. I love quick bread recipes, as I am not a fan of the whole kneading thing and waiting forever for things to rise. obviously when it comes to food, I am not that patient of a person. When I cook I just want to eat quick, and I want it to be good, so for me quick breads are the way to go.


this crust did have to sit for a bit to rest and while it did that I was able to get the rest of the ingredients gathered. the dough rolled out easily which is always a plus. once rolled out the fillings were spread and placed on approximately half the crust leaving just enough on the sides to crimp the crust shut without causing the fillings to burst out the sides. I did an okay job at this with only the slightest bit of sauce coming out as I closed it up. not bad for the first time ever making this. the recipe was also very specific as to the order of the layering of the ingredients, which may not seem like a big deal but it did turn out perfect the way they had me do it so it must be a crucial step.


the finished product is a good size and I do believe would be big enough for 3-4 people, unless you were really hungry then maybe only 2. I would love to make this again using different fillings. my next idea is spinach, mushroom and feta as a filling. I just think that sounds amazing. this recipe could really have any filling you felt like having, just layer it all on the crust fold over and bake to its gooey cheesiness of wonderment that pizza is; and enjoy.

O for Oatmeal pancakes.

this is one of my favorite pancake recipes. they are fluffy with a bit of chewiness from the oatmeal.
I don’t remember making these as a child, we mostly made pancakes without recipes though. and I must say that once I realized recipes actually existed for pancakes they have been turning out so much better. I mean I always knew recipes existed it was just we never used them, which meant it was about a one in ten chance the pancakes would be good. recipes changed all that.
now between this recipe and the one from a Betty Crocker cookbook my pancakes are fairly consistent, which is a good thing.


this recipe is pretty much like all pancake recipes. it basically mix everything together. the hardest part of making pancakes is the standing around waiting while they cook.

since unlike other recipes where you throw something in the oven and have time to go about doing other things while it bakes, pancakes have to have a constant watch. if you step away for even thirty seconds at the wrong time they will burn. and who wants burnt pancakes? not me. though I do have to admit I have at times scraped away the char and ate the burnt ones. but mostly I keep an eagle eye on them so I don’t have too. the other hard part is figuring out the timing of when to flip them. flip too soon its a globby mess, flip too late its chard. my method is to wait till bubbles appear nearly to the center of the pancake and a film has formed on the edges. this seems to work well for pancakes cooked on cast iron, I am not sure about other pans as I have always cooked with cast iron and don‘t have a clue about using other types of pans. watching cooking shows they definitely seem to cook differently.

and then on top of the constant watch you also have to make sure the heat is not turned up to high, or you can end up with a mess like in “Ramona and her mother” by: Beverly Cleary; when Ramona’s father slices the pancakes her mother just made and the batter oozes out because the pancakes are not cooked in the middle. I loved those books. I should totally read them again.

as for these oatmeal pancakes. they will remain the staple that they already are. I have always enjoyed a good pancake and feel they can be eaten for any meal or snack. they can be eaten with fruit added in before cooking or put on top after they are cooked. they can be sweetly topped with syrups and jellies; or they can have savory spices added to them and topped with meat or veggies. Pancakes are so versatile, I just love them.

N for nibble sticks.

Nibble sticks are pretty tasty. I knew this going into the recipe because we used to make this quite often.

When we were children in the summers we would go with a group of friends every clear Wednesday to the river for hours of swimming and fun. the area we used to go had several deep pools within about a quarter mile so if one was filled up you could always head over to the next.


the most popular one though had a large rock one could jump off. it wasn’t high out of the water only about two feet so it made it fun for all ages. we spent many hours taking turns jumping from this rock and working up an appetite.


Nibble sticks were the perfect cure for this. they were easy enough that we could make them on our own, and traveled well. by the time I was ten my mom had told us we needed to pack our own lunches for the river, so we did just that, making nibble sticks a staple. we had so much fun those Wednesdays.


nibble sticks are kind of a cross between biscuit and scone a little fluffier then a scone but not quite a biscuit either. they have Cheese an lunch meat mixed in which makes them feel more like a meal then plain biscuits. and easier then a sandwich because it doesn’t have to be assembled, and there is no chance of the contents slipping out and dropping out onto the ground. there is nothing worse then the contents of a sandwich slipping out of your bread onto the ground and being left standing there with two pieces of bread to eat, because dirt and pine needles are not palatable , and they will stick to cheese and sandwich meat.



my sister used to make these a lot for our trip to the river. and even though we would make the same recipe using the same instruction hers and mine always came out different from each others. to me hers always tasted better then mine. and I think the difference in them was the amount of mixing. hers were always a little more dense and flaky where as mine were more fluffy like a biscuit. I wonder which is the way its supposed to be. as the recipe gives no indication of finished texture. I guess it doesn’t matter though. both ways are tasty and that is what really counts.