Tomato Dumpling Soup

It has been a busy summer!  We did a few vacations this year, which we typically don't do, so between the vacations and trying to maintain our garden and yard, it has been interesting.  It has been great to spend time with family and especially our grandchildren...oops, does that tell you how old I am? 
Anyway, I decided to make this from all of our fresh tomatoes I have been harvesting.  I invested in a juicer and it definitely makes making tomato juice MUCH easier.  If you don't have access to fresh tomatoes, I usually use a large can of tomato juice.  It calls for milk, but if I have cream on hand, I sometimes use that instead of the milk.  Enjoy!

Tomato Dumpling Soup                                         

1 quart tomato juice
1-2 cups milk
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
4 tablespoons flour
2-3 tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 batch of hard dumpling, cooked in boiling water

In stock pot, melt butter and cook onions and garlic until tender.  Mix in flour, making a roux.  Slowly add in the tomato juice, sugar, cloves, salt, pepper and milk, stirring until thickened.  Add dumplings and serve.  

 

Hard Dumplings                                                  

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 cups flour

½ cup milk

1 egg

Mix dry ingredients together.  Make a well in flour and add milk and egg.  Mix well.  Dough will be soft and wet.  Drop into boiling broth or water.  Cook a couple of minutes. 

Two more rhubarb desserts!

Hi,
I am getting full of rhubarb desserts, so since it was a rainy day here in Minnesota, decided to do the last of the two rhubarb recipes and move onto some other!
One of them is a third Rhubarb pie recipe.  This recipe's origin is the St. Cloud Hospital where my mother baked for many years.  I think this is my favorite of the pie recipes, probably because there is only one crust on the bottom and a graham cracker crumb topping. 
The other is a Rhubarb Dessert, but starts out with a rich crust, a similar to pie filling but is topped with a meringue instead of a crust or crumbs.  Both are good!

Rhubarb Pie #3
4 cups chopped rhubarb
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons vanilla
1 pie crust shell, unbaked
3/4 cup crushed graham crackers
1/4 cup butter melted
Mix the rhubarb, eggs, sugar, flour, salt, 2 tablespoons melter butter and vanilla (yes, really 2 tablespoons, I double checked the recipe to make sure it wasn't a typo!) together.  Pour into the prepared pie crust.  Mix the graham cracker crumbs and butter together and sprinkle on the top of the filling.  Bake at 350 degrees until the pie is set, about 40 minutes.

Rhubarb Dessert
Crust:
2 cups flour
1 cup butter, room temperature
2 tablespoons sugar
Mix the flour and sugar together and cut the softened butter into the flour mixture. Pat into a 9x13 inch pan.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. 
While that is baking, mix the filling together.
Filling:
5 cups rhubarb, chopped
2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons flour
1 cup cream
6 egg yolks (save the whites for the meringue topping)
Put the filling onto the baked crust and put back into the oven.  Bake for an additional 40 minutes.
When the dessert is almost done cooking start beating the 6 egg whites with an electric mixer (if you can do this by hand, God bless you!).  As you are beating the egg whites, add 8 tablespoons of sugar to the whites, 2 tablespoons at a time.  (This is 1/2 cup total-16 tablespoons in a cup.)  When the egg whites have reached a firm peak, gently fold in 2 teaspoons of vanilla.  Spread on the rhubarb dessert and return to the oven.  Bake for an addional 20 minutes.

Hope you enjoy these desserts!
Bonnie

RHUBARB!

It is spring and the rhubarb is up!  There are a few things that I am excited about in spring, one is the fresh asparagus and the second is desserts with rhubarb.  My mother's recipes had three rhubarb pie's and one dessert.  I made two of the pie recipes.  They were both very similar, the differences were the amount of rhubarb used and one had cinnamon in it.  I thought I would prefer the one with cinnamon, but to my surprise, I liked the one with out the cinnamon better.  That one was also less juice. 
Below are the two recipes.  Enjoy!

Rhubarb Pie
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups rhubarb, chopped into small pieces
2 egg yolks, beaten
Pie crust for a double pie.
Mix the sugar and flour together.  Add the rhubarb and egg yolks.  Roll out the pie dough and fill the unbaked bottom crust.  Put the top crust over and crimp the edges.  Brush the top with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar.  Cut a couple of slits in the pastry.  Bake 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until the crust is brown and the mixture is bubbling.

Rhubarb Pie #2
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 Tablespoons flour
3 cups rhubarb, chopped into small pieces
2 egg yolks, well beaten
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Pie crust for a double pie
Mix the sugar, flour and cinnamon together.  Add the rhubarb and egg yolks, mix well.  Roll out the pie dough.  Put the filling in the unbaked pie crust.  Put the top crust over the filling and crimp the edges.  Brush the top with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar. Cut a couple of slits in the pastry. Bake 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until the crust is brown and the mixture is bubbling.

Mango Salsa

This was not a recipe that my mother made, but my family and I love fresh salsa, including the fruit variety.  The thing I love about salsa is that it doesn't need exact ingredients.  You can make it with what ever you have in your refrigerator.  This is good with chips, but is also good on grilled fish and chicken.  Enjoy!

Mango Salsa
2 mangos, cubed
1/2 cup red onion
1/2 cup chopped red pepper
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 T. lime juice
1/4 cup oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 jalapeno pepper, optional

Just chop all of the ingredients and mix together.  Let set for a couple of hours before serving to let the flavors meld together. 
Optional ingredients: Green or yellow peppers instead of the red pepper, pineapple or peaches instead of the mango. 

Butterscotch Cookies

It was a rainy weekend, so did a batch of cookies from the recipe book.  I wasn't sure how these would turn out.  They had lots of rolled oats and coconut in them.  The dough seemed a little dry, but the baked up nice.

Butterscotch Cookies    
1 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 1/2 cups rolled oats
2 1/2 cup coconut
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
Cream the butter and brown sugar together.  Add the eggs and vanilla and mix thoroughly.  Sift the dry ingredients together and add to the creamed mixture, mixing well.  Add oats and coconut.  The dough is a little dry and it does take a little time to get the oats and coconut mixed in.  Drop by tablespoons onto cookie sheet.  Flatten slightly with the back of a spoon or fork.  Bake at 350 degrees for 11-12 minutes.  This recipe makes about three dozen cookies.

Chocolate Chip Honey Cookies

Made another cookie recipe today. Chocolate Chip Honey Cookies. It was another very soft dough and made cake like cookies. They are not as sweet tasting as when I used white and brown sugar to make chocolate chip cookies. The recipe called for a package of chocolate chips. If I would have used a 12 ounce package I think I would have ended up with a melted chocolate chip with some cookie dough in it!
Chocolate Chip Honey Cookies Kay Donabauer
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup honey
1 egg, well beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon soda
1 6-oz. package chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts
Beat the butter and honey together until well mixed and light. Add in the egg and vanilla and mix well. Sift the flour, salt and soda together. Add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Fold in the chocolate chips and nuts. Drop dough by tablespoon onto baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Starting again! Chocolate Drop Cookies

Wow, can't believe it has been over two years since I started and still haven't finished the recipe book! It is all typed, I am now testing and editing recipes. I made chocolate drop cookies last weekend, and they turned out pretty good. I am hoping to make a couple more recipes this weekend. After I have the book edited, I need to work on the pictures I want in the book. My goal is to have this done by the end of this year to give to family for a Christmas present. Here's the recipe for the Chocolate Drop Cookies. When I make them again, I think I might try adding some mini-chocolate chips or frosting them with a powdered sugar frosting. The dough is very soft. I did not think they would stay together and I would need to add more flour, but they did great. Enjoy!
Chocolate Drop Cookies from Kay Donabauer
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
2 squares melted chocolate (I used semi-sweet)
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cup flour
Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the egg and melted chocolate and vanilla. Mix well together. Sift the dry ingredients together and add to the creamed mixture alternately with the sour cream. Drop by tablespoons onto cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes.