Zucchini Salad

Zucchini Salad Recipe

2 young/tender zucchini
Water
French dressing (your favorite)
2 oranges, peeled/sectioned
Lettuce

Wash zucchini well. Cook zucchini whole in boiling water for about 5 minutes. Rinse in cold water. Cut zucchini into slices about 1/4" thick.

Put in a glass bowl and add 1 cup French dressing. Cover and marinate overnight (at least marinate it for several hours if you don't have all night). Arrange the zucchini slices and orange sections on crisp lettuce. Spoon dressing over all. Makes about 4 salad servings.

Corn Pudding

Corn Pudding

2 cups corn off cob
2 eggs
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 pint scalded milk
1 medium green pepper, finely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Beat the eggs; add milk, butter, corn, green pepper, and salt and pepper. Pour into a greased baking pan or dish. Set the dish in a pan of hot water for one hour. Bake at 350 degrees until the pudding is firm, usually about one hour.

Country Dumplings

Country Dumplings Recipe

Basically, dumplings are droplets of dough. You can do so many things with dumplings. Dumplings can be cooked by boiling, steaming, simmering, frying, or baking and I never fail to eat a little bit raw. I love raw dough and under cook most baked things I prepare.

Dumplings fill the tummy and go great in soup and stew. My favorite use of dumplings is to boil them in chicken broth and chicken chunks with this and that vegetables thrown in.

Memorize this recipe and use it whenever you want to stretch your food budget and make your family happy at the same time.

Here are the ingredients:

2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk or water

Sift the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Add the liquid and mix to a batter that will drop from a spoon.. Drop by spoonful into boiling soup or stew.

Important: Make sure there is plenty of liquid and that there is no possibility of it boiling dry in the next 20 minutes. Here's why: with dumplings you cannot peak after you put the lid on the pan.

So after you have dropped the dumplings in the boiling liquid put the lid on the pan, make sure it is tight, and cook undisturbed for 10 to 20 minutes, depending on how big or small you made your dumplings.

Susan's Angel Biscuits

This Angel Biscuits recipe needs a light touch by the baker/cook if you want your biscuits praised by each person who is lucky enough to eat one fresh from the oven. What I mean by light touch is to handle the ingredients with gentle mixing.

Tip: Before I put my Angel Biscuits in the oven, I dust dry flour over the top of each unbaked biscuit just before I put it in the hot oven. This gives your homemade biscuits an unmistakable homemade look. My Grandma Holcom and my Grandma Shook McGee both did this to nearly all their yeast baked breads.

Angel Biscuit Ingredients

1 pkg Dry Yeast
1/2 cup warm water
2 cups buttermilk

5 cups flour
3 Tablespoons sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup cold shortening

First thing to do is sift all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda). Next, go ahead and mix the yeast and warm water so it gets a nice start going and set it in warm area close by.

Now comes the 'gentle touch' part: cut the cold shortening into the sifted flour mixture. I emphasis this part because it took me years to be able to cut in the shortening so perfectly that my biscuits actually float in the air. I'm not bragging -- but practice does make perfect biscuits.

The flour/shortening mixture should be crumbly, like small peas. At that point, blend in your yeast mixture and add the buttermilk. Mix all together until moist.

Now you can put the biscuit dough in the icebox until you're ready to bake a batch.

Getting Biscuit Dough Ready for the Oven

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Take out a hunk of biscuit dough and roll it out on a floured board to desired thickness (I use 1/2" thickness). Use a glass or cookie cutter to cut out biscuits. Place on lightly greased baking flat. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Test a biscuit at 10 minutes and bake longer if necessary.

No Electricity -- Cook on Wood Cook Stove

Pioneer living involved cooking on a wood stove for most women. I have been without electricity (living out in the countryside) enough times to know I want a nice little wood stove available in my kitchen to use when all other resources are unavailable.

I want a wood cook stove that looks just like the photo on the left. It would warm the house, do all necessary cooking and baking, warmer for bread above the stove. I love it.

I use all cast iron pans, skillets, and baking pans so I'm ready to go! Let me know if any of you see a stove like this one. I am a real pioneer cook and I want to be prepared for all events.