A Slightly OCD Recipe Collection

When I read recipes in a magazine or cookbook I get a good feeling about the food-- almost as if I had actually made the dish in question and it was as glorious as the description and picture appear.  I think a lot of other people feel the same way-- hence the popularity of cookbooks and cooking magazines.  Let's face it, I bet most of us don't prepare even a quarter of the recipes we so assiduously snip, scan, pin or peruse.  But we could make that delicious Coconut-Macademia Shrimp if we wanted to, and it would certainly be as mouth-wateringly crispy and golden brown as the picture illustrates.  Who cares if it calls for things I never have on hand.  Things like white pepper, macadamia nuts and wheat beer.  I actually do own panko crumbs and peanut oil so that's probably close enough.

Of course I also have lots of recipes that I use on a regular basis.  I keep them in a binder that has seen better days.

 At one time I used a recipe card file but later typed a lot of them into the computer.  Alas, I had never completed any one recipe system.  With a newly-married daughter clamoring for "all" my recipes, I've decided that THE TIME HAS COME...  I am industriously reformatting the recipes that are already on the computer and typing up all those other oft-used gems still languishing on 3 x 5 cards or even in their original clipped-from-a-magazine form.  It's not taking me quite forever.  But almost.  I'm through appetizers (easy, I don't have many of those), breads, cookies, brownies, cakes, pies, cheesecakes and other desserts, salads, and vegetables.  The large category of "Main Dishes" has yet to be addressed.  This grouping includes wondrous taste treats such as Mom's Slippery Pot Pie, Betty Crocker's Meatloaf (from my 1983 bridal shower gift cookbook), and Teriyaki Shish Kebabs from an old Taste of Home magazine.

The idea here is to make a copy of my entire treasure-trove of recipes for my two daughters and my daughter-in-law (if she wants a copy of all her mother-in-law's recipes-- no pressure though, haha!)-- as well as a New and Improved binder for myself.  I remember that after my maternal grandmother died it was therapeutic for me to be able to go through all her recipes and remember the thousands of culinary delights that came from her kitchen decade after decade.  My girls are just getting a head start on my recipes while I'm still here.

I actually put together a little cookbook of Grandma's recipes for family members.  It was in the early days of personal computers.  Don't scorn my efforts at personal publishing!

I'll be excited to have all my recipes uniformly displayed in a brand spankin' new hot pink binder.  (I admit to being a bit OCD.  I do like standardized formatting even for my personal cookbook).

Because a blog post such as this would be ridiculous without an actual recipe, I'm including a newish fave, "French Bread Rolls to Die For."  Yes, that's what it's called.  I got the recipe from my favorite online recipe site, Allrecipes.com and adapted it somewhat to suit me.  This is my go-to recipe for dinner rolls and even homemade sandwich buns when I'm feeling especially Suzy Homemaker-ish.  You might want to go to the original Allrecipes version for better instructions if needed.

FRENCH BREAD ROLLS TO DIE FOR

Quantities of ingredients are included for an original recipe and also for a recipe and a half because everybody will want "one more roll" once they've tasted these.

1 ½ recipe      Single recipe

2 ¼ c               1 ½ cups warm water

3 ¼ tsp           1 packet (2 ¼ tsp) active dry yeast

3 Tbsp            2 tablespoons white sugar

3 Tbsp            2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 ½ tsp           1 teaspoon salt

6 c                   4 cups bread flour (can replace some of 4 c flour with 1/3 c oatmeal and 1 c                                                   whole wheat flour)

In a large bowl, stir together warm water, yeast, and sugar. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. To the yeast mixture, add the oil, salt, and 2 cups flour. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough has pulled away from the sides of the bowl. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. (About 6 mins with dough hook on mixer). Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl, and turn to coat. Cover with a damp cloth, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

Deflate the dough, and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into 16 equal pieces, and form into round balls. Place on lightly greased baking sheets at least 2 inches apart. Cover the rolls with a damp cloth, and let rise until doubled in volume, about 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Brush rolls with egg white/water mixture before baking.  Bake for 18 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.

If you don't know how to make yeast bread or think it's too complicated, well, you're just missing out.  Try it-- the ingredients aren't expensive, so if you mess up it's no big deal.  It's so worth it.

So good.

Tell me, how/where do you store your recipe collection?

High School Reunion

1978 was a long time ago now.  35 years as a matter of fact.  It's the year I graduated from high school.  Jimmy Carter was president, serial killers Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy were captured, Moonies were handing out carnations in airports and big cities, J.R. Ewing became a household name, Grease starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton John was released, the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin was supposed to replace dollar bills, 909 Americans died in the Jonestown Koolaid massacre, and I believe my pastor was born that year. We all wanted Farrah Fawcett hair, leisure suits looked slightly less stupid than they do now, and if you had Jordache jeans all was well. I was driving my parents' cars, either their Mercury Capri or their Ford Ranchero (I hated driving the Ranchero.  It failed to start more than once, leaving me stranded after my shift running the cash register at Woolworths).  But my dad ingeniously cut apart a Chevy Vega that summer and mounted part of it on the back of our Ranchero for an epic road trip to the west coast and back.

Of course my brother and I rode in the Vega's bucket seats while my parents traveled in the Ranchero.  It was all very safe, I'm sure, ahem.  We did have working windshield wipers and a Radio Shack intercom to communicate between the two compartments.  How else were we supposed to get four people and a pop-up camper across the country?

But I digress.  Let's see.  1978.  Class reunion.  Well, I noticed that we've all gotten rather old-looking.  Some of us were unrecognizable (at least three people called me Connie and my name is Lisa).  Others' looks had miraculously barely changed.  It's nice that people are grownups now.  Everyone got along and was friendly.  The big questions were "where are your kids these days" and "how are your parents doing" and "do you have any grandchildren yet".  Didn't seem like people were too concerned with status or popularity or accomplishments.  It was rather refreshing.  And at my table we didn't even reminisce about high school.  We were too busy saying things like, "Who is that guy over there in the blue shirt?  Whoa!  Seriously?"

I didn't want to go to my reunion because social gatherings are always somewhat uncomfortable for me.  But I'm glad I went.  It was enlightening to re-cast my stale 35-year-old perception of my classmates.  I'd love to hear your comments about reunions you've attended.  You can leave them at the bottom of this blog, or on my Square Pink Marshmallow facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SquarePinkMarshmallows. By the way, I'd love it if you'd "like" my page while you're there.  Thanks!

A Daughter's Wedding

"I do."  The words that seal the deal.  Such a simple statement for the life-altering decision to permanently bind yourself to another person.

But that's exactly what my daughter and son-in-law did a couple of weeks ago.  They met, they dated, they fell in love, they got engaged on a rooftop in Haiti.  They planned, they jarred jam for favors, they constructed pinwheels for place cards.  We reserved and deposited and shopped and decorated and-- yes, the bride made an impromptu garter out of a baby headband the night before the wedding.  The day finally arrived.  It was drizzly in the morning, but I was told the sun literally came out as the bride started down the aisle.  Everything went perfectly-- which doesn't happen often at weddings.  Here's how it all happened...

Two nights before the wedding, the "best woman" hosted a bachelorette party.  My girls love (still) Disney princess movies.  So what did they do?  Ate food, talked, had their nails done-- all with Disney movies playing  in the background.  Precious.











The day before the wedding was spent decorating and rehearsing.  Things were a bit chaotic but some precious people (thank you Stockeland's!) took us in hand and got everything in order.

"Left, right, left, right..."

Best woman, bridemaids, flower girl... ready to go.

Pastor, groom, groomsmen... stand here.

Scripture readers... got a Bible?

Then we headed off to the park for a delicious rehearsal dinner.  Decorations were adorable and the food was scrumptious.  Thanks Stone's!

The wedding day dawned early.  The bride's new mother-in-law to be arrived to do the bride's hair in time to leave for an 11:00 a.m. wedding.  She did a great job with Katie's hair!  It was gorgeous.

We drove on down to Littlestown to the beautiful St. John's Lutheran Church (the bride's grandparents' church) for the ceremony. The next hours were spent in a flurry of dressing, flower-pinning and sweating.  The church was air conditioned, thankfully, but for such an occasion there will be sweat!  The flowers were all fabulous, by the way, (starring lovely hydrangeas) and exactly what we wanted thanks to Pam Newton, our good friend and florist AKA Inspire Wedding Flowers of Hanover, PA.

The ceremony was lovely.  The music provided by some accomplished and talented friends playing the violin and piano provided just the right touch.  The bride and groom incorporated a foot-washing into the ceremony to symbolize the mutual servanthood which is a part of marriage.  They also asked the pastor to issue an invitation to be issued to anyone who may want to know more about following Christ.  The whole ceremony was very touching and meaningful.

The excited mother-of-the-bride escorted by her eldest child, the brother of the bride.

The sister of the bride/maid of honor/best woman.

Here comes the bride and her Daddy.

"Her mother and I."

Proverbs 3:3-6 & Ephesians 4:1-3

The music during the foot washing was a beautiful song called "My Beloved" and is meant as Christ's song to His bride, the church.  But at a wedding "You're my beloved, you're my bride" had additional meaning.

"You may kiss the bride."

Presenting, for the first time, Mr. & Mrs. Stone

"Whew! We did it."

Our friend (and Katie's boss), Mark Stockeland performed a beautiful wedding ceremony.  His wife, Lacey was gracious enough to act as an impromptu wedding coordinator and got everybody down the aisle at the right time.

So cute!

Love, love...

Our birds are flitting out of the nest.

Family of the bride

The parents

The groom's parents

The reception was just 10 minutes away at the charming Union Mills Homestead.  It took place in The Tannery (basically a barn) there.  Here's how it looked when we got done decorating the day before:

We were so pleased with how it looked after we got it set up.

Announcing the wedding party...

First dance

Favors

Welcome from the dad

I wish I had a picture of the food tables/caterer.  We were thrilled with the delicious picnic food chosen for this light-hearted mid-day wedding.  The homemade sandwich bread was yummy.  We highly recommend our caterer, Tom Schuman of the Kountry Kafe & Katering in Westminster, MD for any event.  He was a delight to work with.

Our friend Monique of Gateau Monique baked a delicious cake for us.  It was scrumptious with a white layer and a chocolate layer all filled with creamy raspberry mousse.  My only disappointment was that the chocolate pieces were snatched up so fast I never got to taste it.  But the white was delicious too.

Good catch flower girl!

Looks like we are low on single men!

After all the traditions were taken care of people were free to chat, dance or go outside to play badminton, croquet or corn hole.  I'll have to add pictures of these if I obtain any.  We were extremely pleased with our DJ too.  He was very professional, the sound system and volume were perfect and the music was just what we asked for.  Again, we were so pleased every single one of our wedding "vendors" and DJ Dennis Stem was no exception.

Niece and nephew of the groom

My sister-in-law and my 89-year-old dad.

My niece and her pappy.

The extended maternal family of the bride

To complete the praises I've been singing of all our wedding vendors, last, but not least I'd like to mention Tara's Bridal of Camp Hill, PA where we found The Wedding Gown.  We went to three different places and Tara's was, by far, the best.  Patient, kind and helpful personnel who didn't hard-sell.  Charming ambience.  Gowns separated into rooms by price-- and they never tried to upsell once we told them our budget.  Great to work with and the recommended an awesome and inexpensive seamstress to do alterations too.

And many thanks to my brother who took most of the pictures included here.  I don't yet have access to the professional shots.  I realize that we are missing some special ones including grandparents and other special people, but I didn't want to wait any longer to post what I have!

Thanks to you all for checking in on our special day.  As Katie said, "The wedding came out exactly how we wanted.  It was perfect."  Ah.  It does a mother's heart good to hear that :)  Now, may God bless their whole marriage even more richly than He blessed the celebration of its beginning.