Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 Tbs. vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 bags Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips (They are big chips)
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Beat butter and mix in sugars and vanilla. Then add eggs one at a time until creamy and almost fluffy. Mix in flour, baking soda and salt all at once until well combined. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Drop tablespoon size dough onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 10 -12 minutes. Take out of oven just before you think they look done and you will have a softer cookie. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Beef Stew

Today was a wet cold rainy wintery day! The perfect day for a steaming bowl of Beef Stew!
John has been asking me for a couple of weeks now to make Beef Stew for dinner, I don't know why I've been putting it off~ maybe because I'm still feeling some morning sickness and some smells and tastes are a little crazy to me! I felt like I had put it off long enough though and it did sound good to eat, so I went ahead and made it, feeling great with the end result!

Beef Stew
2 lbs beef cut into 1/2 squares
1/3 cups flour
4 Tbs bacon grease (can substitute a healthier oil)
1/2 cup finely chopped white or yellow onion
8 cups water
1 Tbs beef bouillion
1 Tbs red wine vinegar (optional)
1 Tbs A1 Steak sauce
1 cup or 1 14ounce can petite diced tomatoes with juice
1 garlic clove
2 tsp Kosher salt
1 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 tsp dried thyme
2 cups potatoes peeled and diced
1 cup frozen petite peas
1 cup carrots sliced
1 cup celery sliced

Heat stew pot to medium high heat with oil. Add chopped onions. Coat beef pieces in flour and add to oil and onions. Brown meat. Add Red wine vinegar, water, beef bouillion, A1 sauce, tomatoes, salt, pepper, thyme, and potatoes. Bring to boil then simmer for about an hour with lid on, then add peas, carrots and celery. Simmer for about another hour. Serve hot with your favorite bread.

Best Homemade Biscuits Ever!

I love Biscuits and after a few intentional and accidental changes to some familiar biscuit recipes, I decided that this is my favorite very own variation!

I have a big family so I always make big batches of food! This one makes about 30 biscuits but you can cut it in half.

Best Homemade Biscuits Ever
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbs baking powder
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
mix all above ingredients
then add:
1 cup chilled butter
cut butter into dry ingredients using a pastry cutter
then add:
1 1/3 cup buttermilk
mix with a fork, then knead dough a couple of times on a lightly floured counter top.
roll dough out to about 1/2 inch thick. use a circle cookie cutter (or on Valentine's I like to use a heart cookie cutter and turn the biscuits into little Strawberry Shortcakes for dessert)
place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 450 degrees for about 10 to 12 minutes. makes about 30 biscuits

*make your own buttermilk using your food storage non fat dry milk (powdered milk)!!!!
I bake a lot, and whenever a recipe calls for milk I almost always use my food storage milk so I can keep it rotating. I usually keep on hand in my fridge a batch of cold milk made from dry milk. In fact one of my friends mixes equal parts fresh whole milk with batch of made up dry milk and her kids never could tell the difference, so I tried it once and sure enough the kids never said a word! They just drank it like it was normal milk!!!!

It's 2/3 cup non fat dry milk with 1 quart cold water
So to make the Buttermilk I start before I start the recipe. I use a glass measuring cup and pour 1 Tbs of white vinegar in it then pour the made up batch of milk over it until it reaches the 1 1/3 cup mark, then let it set for a few minutes while mixing other ingredients, then add to recipe.