The Family Kitchen: Grandma Hazel's Raisin Bars

    These raisin bars are a favorite of my dad's and another recipe of my Grandma Hazel's that I have never seen anywhere else. They are a type of cake with raisins mixed in. It uses spices often found in pumpkin pie. My mom learned this recipe from my grandma, and it is still one my dad asks for regularly. I'm glad I have the recipe so I can keep making it. If your family has special recipes or ones that everyone likes, make sure you write them down and share them so the next generation can keep making these special dishes. 

    One thing I have learned over the last few years is how much I wish I took an interest in these things when my grandmas and even my mom were still around and could make all these dishes together. However, now they are pieces of them that I can make and remember good times and all the great meals we had together.  

    During this holiday season, take the time to stop and take in your surroundings. The family and friends around you. Appreciate these times that you have together. Time is fleeting and you don't want to take for granted the time that you have together. 

The ingredients:

1 C raisins

1 C water

1/2 C oil

1 C sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1 3/4 C flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp allspice

The Recipe:

Boil raisins and water then add oil and sugar and set aside to cool.

Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

Place in a jelly roll pan and bake at 350 degreed for 20 minutes. Cool.

Top with a powdered sugar glaze.

2 C powdered sugar

2 T milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

Whisk together until smooth and drizzle on top of raisin bars.

Couple adjustments I had to make because I was low on certain ingredients. I used brown sugar instead regular granulated sugar and only used about 1/2 tsp of vanilla in the cake part. For the glaze, I used almond extract instead of vanilla. Guess I need to get to the store to buy some baking essentials!

The Family Kitchen: Grandma Dru's Ham Balls

My Grandma made these ham balls and they were so good. My mom also made them. They are featured at every family reunion. Needless to say this is an iconic family dish. This was the first time I made them and they taste just as good as I remember and smell amazing!

The recipe:

Some slight adjustments I made are swapping pork rind panko for the bread (I used 1 C), using pinneapple chunks instead of rings, and using white wine vinegar. I also made this into balls instead of a loaf. This yielded apprx 16 large ham balls.

The Family Kitchen: Chocolate Cherry Cake

For my family reunion this weekend, I made one of moms desserts with a twist. A chocolate cake with cherry pie fIlling. The cake was so moist and delicious! It has 1tbsp of almond extract which I love but if you are not a fan of almond extract you could sub vanilla extract. 

I also did not make the homemade icing I just used store bought but my tip is to whip your icing with a mixer. It makes it so fluffy and a lot easier to spread. It was the best icing job I have ever done!

I honestly did not know what to expect with this recipe but it turned out so good but not your traditional chocolate cake and it was very easy and quick to make.

The Family Kitchen: Grandma Hazel dressing with a twist inspired from my mom

 My Grandma Hazel made the best dressing. I used her recipe to try and recreate it with a few tweaks inspired by my mom. 

My mom would make this dressing but would add either chicken or turkey into it to make it more of a chicken and stuffing bake. I followed the recipe except I added extra chicken broth (still could have used more in my opinion) and added chicken and fresh sage.  When Grandma made this, it was always so soft and only crispy on the edges same with my mom. However, mine was still on the drier side. I either need to use more chicken broth or water, or maybe add a can of cream of chicken soup. I also did not use any stale bread just the stuffing croutons. It still tastes great just not as good as Mom and Grandma's!

With this dish I also made southern green beans with red potatoes, and cubed ham in the crockpot. I used fresh green beans from the produce stand and red potatoes as well. 

The recipe:

I used 3lbs aprx of green beans trimmed

5-6 small red potatoes cubed or diced

1/2 C chicken broth

1 Ham steak cubed

1 TBSP butter

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

red pepper flakes optional

salt to taste

I added it all to the crockpot and cooked on high for 3 1/2 hours

The finished product was very good and was a great comfort food/ classic recipe as well. This would be great to make for thanksgiving and in fact I did make this for myself for Thanksgiving last year. 

The Family Kitchen: Grandma Hazel's Texas Hash

 A few weeks ago, I was able to go through my Grandma's old recipes and cookbooks and found some I wanted to try. Tonight, I made her Texas Hash with a few adjustments, and it was really good!

I made a few adjustments of course. I added diced potatoes and red and yellow peppers instead of green. I used brown rice instead of white cooked in the rice cooker with chicken broth. I also made my own homemade chili powder. 

                                         

                                         

I also got to try out my new Ninja Possiblepot with the recipe making it truly a one pot meal. I was able to brown the hamburger and cook everything in the same pot (except for the rice). Then place the pot in the oven to finish cooking for 25 minutes. The cleanup was so easy and it was very convenient. The best part...leftovers!

The Family Kitchen: Grandma Hazel's recipes and all other Kentucky inspired dishes

Saturday, I had some friends and family over for a small derby party. We watched the derby, had a nice visit, and ate some of my Grandma Hazel's recipes plus some Kentucky favorites.

For an appetizer, we had cheese, summer sausage, crackers, homemade pimento cheese spread, pickles, olives, and my original recipe of a hot brown cheese ball! The cheese ball was inspired by the Hot Brown Sandwich that is a Kentucky favorite. 

                               

                               

For dinner, we had my Grandma's Taglorini (baked spaghetti with corn topped with cheese slices), a salad, and rolls.

                   

For dessert, we had two options. My Grandma's Butter Creme Pie with cool whip instead of meringue and chocolate chip derby pie squares with a buttery pecan crust.

                  

               

 

We also had a Bourbon Mint Lemonade cocktail made with Woodford Reserve Bourbon which was the sponsor of the Kentucky Derby. Not being a big drinker, this was a great cocktail. I did play around with the recipe so it was more to our tastes.

                                     

All the food was very good (if I do say so myself). There are a few tweaks I would make with the cheese ball but overall it was great!

Recipes are included below.

Taglorini- Grandma Hazel's recipe

Butter Cream Pie- Grandma Hazel's recipe

Pimento Cheese Spread

                                                        Mix all ingredients together

Chocolate Chip Derby Pie

Hot Brown Cheese Ball

Bourbon Mint Lemonade

3-4 C of lemonade

1/2 C Bourbon

1 spring mint

Mix together in pitcher and refrigerate.

Enjoy some of my family's favorite recipes and some local southern and Kentucky regional recipes and my new original Hot Brown inspired cheese ball! I hope you enjoy them!

The Family Kitchen: Mom's (Secret) Chocolate Chip Cookies

 My mom made the best cookies. Her sugar cookies and chocolate chip were family favorites. I know everyone says that, but my mom's cookies were amazing! We would have one or the other if not both at almost every family event. Christmas, Easter, etc.

For years, I knew there was something special about them. She had to add something special to make them taste different than every other chocolate chip cookie I had ever had. They were just better. I would make them, and they just were never the same. 

I finally asked her what her recipe for her chocolate chip cookies were and you know what she told me? It's the recipe from the Nestle Toll house bag! I immediately thought of this scene from Friends!

To be honest, I did not believe her! There had to something different because they tasted so much different than when I made them. In all honesty there was not a secret ingredient, but there was a secret tip!

Are you all ready? Big family secret coming here.... you have to cream the butter and sugar together for at least 5 minutes. It totally changes the taste! Don't ask me how or why but it does. Once I started doing that...amazing my cookies finally started tasting like the ones mom made!

So if you want the recipe go buy yourself a bag of nestle toll house chocolate chips and its right there!

Just don't forget to cream the butter and sugar for 5 minutes!

                                                  

You can make adaptations as you like. My dad loves these cookies with raisins instead of chocolate chips. You can add nuts, a different type of chocolate chip, add dried fruit, etc. For these cookies, I ran out of all-purpose flour, so it is mixed a bit with whole wheat flour and I only had mini chocolate chips so that's what I used. I prefer using dark chocolate chips myself. They still taste pretty good but do have a bit of a different taste than normal. 

                                             

The other thing I would do different is bake them a bit longer. I baked them for 9 minutes but anywhere from 9-11 minutes is good. These turned out very chewy and thin. You have to taste test while baking cookies right? I also used a cookie scoop but some of the cookies were pretty big. To make them last longer I would probably use a smaller cookie scoop, if I had one! These babies have been portioned out and frozen, so I don't eat them all tonight! A great tip for portion control.