30 Days of Family Favorite Recipes

I missed day one and two. I'm going to cheat from the start and post those later today.

For now though, the goal is to post a one of my family's favorite recipes each day for the month of September.

This is a challenge for me as

1) It's hard for everyone to agree 100% on a favorite ~ I have a child that doesn't like melted cheese and another that doesn't like chocolate. Excuse me? They won't have a say here. Six against one. Majority rules.

2) I don't think I've ever done anything for 31 days straight. Not even make my bed. Maybe I should add bed making to my goals instead.

Just as a heads up, we're pretty basic around here. You won't find the fancy stuff that takes hours to make and minutes to devour. If I want to impress someone, that's another story, but we're talking efficiency now, and as a single mom with a busy schedule, efficiency rules the day and the dinner table.

All of the recipes in this series are ones that we have made many, many times. They are tried and true. The kids have given them the thumbs up review.

We gravitate towards foods that are fast, easy, use everyday ingredients that I have on hand, and use minimal prepackaged mixes. I like to cook from scratch because I know what's in my food that way and yeah, it's cheaper.

This morning I posted a recipe for homemade ice cream. I can't think of a better way to start.

I'll be adding to this list as I go along, but to give you an idea of what we consider favorites:

Jeanette's Basic Ice Cream
Swedish Pancakes
Ultimate Grilled Cheese - Basic with a twist that makes it great
Idaho Baked Potato Soup - From one of my Idaho sisters-in-law
Brown Sugar Sausage-Bacon Appetizers - Oh. My. Gosh.
Party Punch
Tortilla Stew
Sloppy Joes
Sweet and Sour Salad - I don't care what the kids say. This is fantastic!
Stafford Breakfast
Chili Stack
Pizza
Chicken Dressing Casserole
Chicken Poppy Casserole
Hot Chicken Salad - another mother-in-law recipe - yumm
Navajo Tacos and Fry Bread - Courtesy of my sister-in-law - my kids love it!
Chicken Roll Ups - A mother-in-law recipe, which means it's delicious
Sweet and Sour Chicken - Reminds me of Panda's orange chicken
Chili - Make a bunch and freeze it for later
Biscuits Supreme - A definite must have recipe
Basic Muffins and Favorite Variations - A breakfast favorite
Flour Tortillas - All the kids help make these - simple and great
Pumpkin Streusel Bread - A favorite for fall
Braden's Famous Focaccia - My son has been making this since he was eight and it's great
One Hour Cinnamon Rolls - Yep, start to finish in an hour
Puffy French Toast - You know those crispy, puffy french toast sticks you can get at restaurants?
Waffles - light and crisp and perfect
Super Simple Smoothies
Oatmeal Cake
A Recipe for Disaster

...and a little space for last minute picks...

If you have a family favorite, feel free to share! ~ Erin

The Best Ever Homemade Ice Cream

In honor of Labor Day and many, many family parties with  homemade ice cream...the day just wouldn't be the same without it.

This is the first in my attempt to post a recipe a day of our family's favorite recipes. To see the rest, clicky here. For the record, this is a work in progress until the end of the month. =]

My husband was one of eight kids, seven of whom were boys. When we all lived close together, family get-togethers were a blast. OK, yes, I muttered at the time, but our kids loved hanging out with their cousins, and of course, there was the food...  

When it came to family parties, we were all assigned to bring something. Most of us daughters-in-law got assigned homemade ice cream to go along with whatever else we brought, but no one could compete with my mother-in-law when it came to the ice cream. 

image source

Believe me. I tried. 

One time, in desperation, I bought a couple cartons of Breyer's Mint Chocolate Chip (my favorite brand because it tastes homemade), plopped it in a bowl, used the mixer to soften it up, then stuck it in the ice cream maker and called it mine. 

I did get rave reviews at that family party, but couldn't keep a straight face when asked for the recipe. I confessed and got a couple of high-fives from my sisters-in-law. My kids still tease me about it.

This is my mother-in-law's recipe and she is famous for it. It's pretty much a given for Labor Day, Memorial Day, family birthdays, etc.

She has a basic base and then adds what she wants to it. A few of the favorite alterations are below. 

Jeanette's Basic Ice Cream

4 eggs

4-1/2 t vanilla

1/2 t salt

2-1/4 c sugar

4 c whipping cream

4 c half and half

1 c milk

Beat eggs ‘til slightly thickened. Add vanilla and salt. Slowly add sugar and beat til mixed. Mix in whipping cream and 2 c half and half. Pour into one gallon ice cream container and add remaining half and half. Add milk to fill line. 

Freeze according to ice cream maker instructions.

For our favorite variations, add the following to the base as directed:

Cookies and Cream:

1 sm pkg Oreo cookies - 2/3 broken and 1/3 finely smashed/crushed. 
To be fair, my mother-in-law scrapes the filling off the this last third before crushing, but I can never bring myself to do that.

When mostly frozen, after about 10-15 minutes, add cookies. Letting it set up a bit keeps everything from settling on the bottom.

Toasted Almond

1/2 c Nestle Quik

1/4-1/2 t almond extract

1-1/4 c toasted almonds 

For toasted almonds, heat oven to 350. Place almonds on a cookie sheet. Stir after 10 minutes. Cook for 3-5 minutes longer. Watch carefully as once they start to brown, they go from toasty to burnt quickly. Cool before adding to ice cream. These are soft when warm, but as they cool, they get crunchy.

Chocolate Chip:

1/2 c grated dark chocolate

1/2 c grated milk chocolate

I like to add peppermint extract, but I couldn't tell you how much. Maybe I'll experiment today. =]

For Chocolate/Chocolate Chip, add 1/2 c Nestle Quik as well.

Cakalicious

My daughter had her 16th birthday yesterday.

Rather than say "Sweet 16 and never been kissed", we woke her up with a shower of Hershey's Kisses. Not a bad start, eh?

Her Swiss Swirl Ice Cream Cake was a group effort, and the recipe can be found here, at Taste of Home .

Daughter #3 was in charge of the Hoho cutting and did a fab job. We lined a glass bowl with saran wrap, then placed the sliced Hohos cut side down in the bowl, courtesy of Daughter #2, who fought for the privilege. We popped it in the freezer to firm up a bit.

Next we added the ice cream. One box Vanilla Chocolate Swirl. While I usually beat softened ice cream to make something like this, this time I cut it in slices (economy bargain box brand) and placed the slices in a complete layer using my hands. I'm not going to show a picture because it looks messy. Fun though. Just saying.

Freeze again and repeat with the second ice cream. We used plain old chocolate. Again we cut it in slices and pressed it into place. The advantage with cutting is that the consistency of the ice cream doesn't change with too much melting and refreezing. Also, it can be ready to eat faster. And yes, I was being lazy.

Cover with saran wrap and freeze.

When frozen and ready to go, peel off the saran wrap and invert it onto a plate.

We call this picture "The Unveiling".

Anxious for a slice....

 Not the prettiest shot. Found out that the ice cream was soft because the outside freezer had been unplugged all day. We had fired some beads that morning and only one plug fits at a time in that outlet. Probably a good thing we had this treat or who knows when we would have checked on the freezer again. Uggg.

Overall, it was a success. Only three plates? Someone must have put theirs in the dishwasher!

Pretty sweet with all the Hohos. I think I'd rather just go with straight ice cream, but it was definitely good and looked pretty nifty up close. If you give this a shot, I'd recommend placing the Hohos (actually, we used Little Debbie's Swiss Rolls) closer together than we did. Don't squish 'em, but no gap-age.

 This is what happens when you leave the camera on the table when you're done. =]