Recipes

Name: Anne's Sugar Cookies
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 8 min
Total time: 23 min
Yield: 3 -4 dozen
Ingredients: 3 cups flour; 1 cup sugar; 1 tsp baking powder; 1 tsp salt; 1 tsp baking soda; 1 cup shortening; 2 eggs; 2 tsp vanilla

There’s nothing like blessing someone with a dish of homemade food! Check back often for recipes to use for church pot lucks or outreach ministries. Catch funny and poignant stories about food in history and in Karen’s daily life. I’ll also share recipes from the past and how those dishes weave into my historical fiction.

December 19, 2016 by Karen Wingate Leave a Comment

Sugar Cookies: Cutout Cookies Without The Frustration

Finally! I made cut out Christmas sugar cookies that worked!

Over the years, I’ve been so frustrated by cut-out cookies. I love to cook. I consider myself a fairly good cook. But cutout sugar cookies would strip me of any pride over my cooking ability with one flyby of a rolling pin. I cringe to admit there were days the effort stripped me of my Christian character as well. These cookies, more like sweet pie dough than cookie dough, roll out beautifully. They stick together and need a minimum of flour.

I can’t take credit. This recipe comes from Anne, The Anne, who in spite of severe arthritis, makes these wonderful cut-out cookies to donate to our University campus ministry cookie outreach. Anne is one of the sweetest ladies I know and her love for Jesus ebbs from every pore. She made and sold cookies and cakes as part of her own little cottage industry. You can read more about Anne here. Today arthritis and a series of strokes have stopped most of her baking. Anne admitted to me that she also has been frustrated by other recipes. Over the years through her baking industry, she has made literally thousands of cookies from this recipe. That’s not pride talking. that’s just fact.

I didn’t ice mine because, well, that’s another grr. But Anne told me how to manage that. Mix together 1 egg white and enough powdered sugar to make the icing a spreading consistency. Add a little water if you need to. Then use a paintbrush to apply the icing. Not a knife! Oh Anne, you are brilliant. I need to make another batch just so I can try this.

I posted a picture on Facebook of my success and someone echoed my frustration over Christmas sugar cookies. I’m so thrilled with this recipe, I want to share it with you.

So if you share the recipe with anyone, do me a favor. Don’t tell anyone the recipe came from me. Instead, make sure you call them “Anne’s Sugar Cookies” and mention that they come from a very sweet lady.

The best part of my cookie baking session? I took a plate of cookies to Anne to share my delight. Her husband, Mike, immediately reached for one of the cookies. Yes!

Anne's Sugar Cookies

Prep 15 mins

Cook 8 mins

Total 23 mins

Author Karen Wingate

Yield 3 -4 dozen

Ingredients

3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup shortening
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

Instructions

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. Cut in the shortening like you would for pie crust. Beat the eggs and vanilla together in a small bowl.
Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients, pour in the egg mixture and stir until the dough clings together. (Anne says she uses her hands for this step.)
Dust bread board and rolling pin with a bit of flour. Using small amounts of dough at a time, roll out to desired thickness and cut in desired shapes, placing on an ungreased cookie sheet. If you want a softer cookie, roll out thick. If you want a thin, crispy cookie, roll out thin.
Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

Notes

If you don’t want to ice, these taste good just plain. You can also sprinkle colored sugar on the cookies before baking.

Courses Dessert

July 10, 2016 by Karen Wingate 4 Comments

Bucket List: Top Ten Foods I Want To Try

Name a food you want to try for the first time.

Time for a little fun on Grace on Parade. I’ve got bucket lists of foods I want to try before I leave this earth. And I want to hear yours.

Don’t freak. It’s nothing weird. At least not too much.

Top Ten Foods I Want To Try

1. Lobster

2. Gooseberry Pie

3. Baked Alaska

4. Orange Roughy fish

5. Jambalaya

6. Beignets

7. Goat cheese

8. Couscous

9. Fish Tacos

10. Turnip Greens

Next week: Ten Foods you’d like to learn how to make.

I’ll give you a chance to start thinking. Barring cooking experience, cost and whether anyone would eat it, what are ten recipes you would like to try?

Leave a comment below. What food would you like to try for the first time?

March 30, 2016 by Karen Wingate Leave a Comment

Recipe: Pork Green Chili Stew

My husband is into his second week of an upper respiratory infection and I finally decided I’d had enough. It was time to get out the big guns and blast this thing once and for all. We are leaving for Arizona in a week to celebrate my uncle’s life on earth and Jack is conducting the funeral. We need to get this guy well! It’s time for some Pork Green Chili Stew.

For those who like spicy things and who aren’t suffering tummy troubles along with whatever virus entered their system, Pork Green Chili Stew is the perfect cure-all. Hey, it has chicken broth. Doesn’t that count for something?

I couldn’t find the recipe I’ve used before. I looked at ten different recipes and didn’t like any of them. So, yeah, um, I, <blush> made it up. Fortunately for me, and for you, I measured everything. Let me share my results with you. And relax. You don’t have to wait till you or a family member gets sick to enjoy this succulent, sinus clearing stew.

Karen’s Pork Green Chili Stew

2 Tbsp oil
½ cup diced onion
½ cup diced celery
1-1 ½ cups shredded cooked pork (or chicken)
2 cups chicken broth
1 4 oz can chopped green chilies
¼ tsp garlic power
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp red chili powder
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp cilantro
½ tsp cumin
¼ tsp sugar
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 medium carrot, peeled and sliced
1 tsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp water

Heat oil in 2 quart saucepan. Add onion and celery; cook till tender. Add cooked pork or chicken, chicken broth, green chilies and all the spices. Cover, heat until boiling, lower heat, and cook for ten minutes. Add potatoes and carrots; cook ten more minutes or until potato is tender. Mix cornstarch and water together, add to stew, stirring constantly. Turn heat up to medium; stir until bubbly and slightly thickened.

Serve in soup bowls. Top with cheddar cheese and sour cream if you like and pass a bowl of tortilla chips.

What’s your favorite cold remedy (other than Chicken Noodle Soup)?

January 26, 2016 by Karen Wingate Leave a Comment

Karen’s Recipe File: Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

Here’s my all-time comfort dessert – Hot Fudge Pudding Cake.

Hot Fudge Pudding Cake is an old fashioned dessert my mom used to make that has become a classic right along with Snickerdooles, Rice Pudding and cheesecake. My daughters prefer this to anything else for their birthdays. I love it so much, I’m willing to suffer the pain from my allergy to chocolate. Believe me, it is a dish that isn’t much to look at but the taste is beyond awesome.

It has to be eaten within ten minutes of coming out of the oven so it isn’t the greatest potluck or company dish. It can be warmed up the next day but isn’t quite the same. On the other hand, this is so wonderful some of us will eat it warm, cold, lefteover—should it last so long. Some, like my husband, want to adorn it with whipped cream or ice cream? Die hards like I and my daughters don’t want to minimize the awesome taste or waste time getting out the extra. Just give us a bowl of the good stuff.

So, the best way to serve Hot Fudge Pudding Cake? Invite some girlfriends over who need a chocolate fix and serve it straight out of the oven. Be sure to have the coffee or hot tea prepared beforehand. Another serving suggestion? Half the recipe and eat it in secret. But let’s face it. Chocolate is twice as yummy if you can share it with someone else.

If this recipe needs any improvement, try using dark chocolate cocoa. Oh my!

Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp cocoa
1/2 cup milk
2 Tbsp shortening, melted
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1-3/4 cups hot water

Blend flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and the 2 Tbsp cocoa in bowl. Stir in milk and shortening. Blend in nuts. Spread in greased square 9×9 pan. Mix brown sugar and 1/4 cup cocoa together; sprinkle over cake mixture. Pour hot water over entire batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. During baking, cake mixture will rise to the top and chocolate sauce will settle to the bottom. Cut into squares; invert each square onto dessert plate; spoon sauce over top. Or, invert entire pudding on platter. Serve warm. Can serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream but why would you want to do that?