March Recipes

Lime Chiffon Pie

4 egg yolks / 1 15-oz. can sweetened condensed milk

1/3 c. lime juice (If you can’t find Key limes, any other kind will do.)

1/4 tsp. salt / 6 egg whites / 1/2 cup sugar

1 (9-inch) pastry shell

Beat egg yolks until thick and lemon-colored.

Stir in condensed milk, lime juice and salt, blending well.

In another bowl, beat egg white until foamy; gradually add sugar, continue beating until meringue stands in peaks.

Fold ¼ cup of meringue into egg-yolk mixture.

Pour into baked pie shell. Cover top with remaining meringue.

Bake at 400 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes, or until meringue is lightly browned. Makes 8 slices.

Paintbrush Cookies

Make up a batch of your favorite Rolled Sugar Cookie dough. Chill for 2 hours.

Then roll out a lump of cookie dough. Cut out only a few cookies at a time so unbaked cookies won't dry out before they are painted.

Place cookies on baking sheet. Prepare "Egg Yolk Paint" recipe:

Egg Yolk Paint:

Blend well:

1 egg yolk and 1/4 tsp water

Divide mixture among several small custard cups

or in muffin tin cups.

Add a different food coloring to each cup

to make bright colors.

Paint designs on cookies with small-to-medium paintbrushes. (If "paint" thickens on standing, add a few drops of water)

Use your imagination ~ be creative! I love to make plaids! Roses with leaves are pretty too! But you can do ANYTHING you think of!

Bake as recipe directs, but for clearest colors, do not let cookies brown. When cool, add "touches" or "edges" of frosting to add a little sweetness, if desired.

Macaroni and Cheese

(Mom's (Barb's) Homemade)

Great care and precision MUST be

taken with this recipe! All measurements

must be exact, or it will not turn out

correctly. I wish you well!!!

Macaroni: Take a "good-size" bag (one small or about 1/2 large bag) of elbow macaroni and cook according to instructions. The medium size elbow macaroni is our favorite, but the tiny "salad" size is a fun change once in a while. The shell or bow shapes are just not the same. Cute and different, yes; but not acceptable.

Sauce: Make a medium-to-thick white sauce by either following actual instructions in a cookbook (Betty Crocker) or by "winging it" which is what I prefer: Throw a blob of margarine into a sauce pan and melt. Toss in a good-sized scoop of white flour and mix and continue to cook so that the mixture is "blobby" (movable, but not runny or stiff). Throw in some salt. Add enough milk to make a good amount of sauce for what's going into your macaroni and mix it in with a "bouncer." (You know, one of those "boingy" things; not a wire whip, but a thingy that can actually bounce if you drop it straight down onto the counter, preferably BEFORE you mix something with it. When you push it all the way down onto the counter, the whole wiry part will actually press down into one solid spiral; that's how to know if you've got the same utensil I'm talking about here.

Cheese: Grate enough cheese (I prefer medium-sharp) to first add some to the sauce ~ maybe one or two cups; stir it in to the white sauce till it's all melted ~ and then also save some for a nice thick coating for the top.

What size grater hole? I prefer the medium-large holes on the grater; not humongous, and not the teensy ones! If you only have the large and small, as I now do, I'd go for the large.

Put: the cooked macaroni into a rectangular glass baking pan that it will fit into. If you're trying to decide between a smaller one that it will "barely" fit into and the next size up, I'd go for the "next size up" because your macaroni-to-cheese ratio will be much greater. By this I mean you will have more of that yummy cheese topping per square inch of macaroni. Not that you're actually going to measure the cubic volume of macaroni!!! God forbid! We haven't measured anything yet; why start now!?!?! It's just the general principal of having more crusty golden-brown cheese topping in each bite!

Bake: at 350 degrees for, oh maybe 1/2 hour or so. You want the top cheese to be bubbling and golden brown at least in spots! (Burnt does not qualify as "golden brown.) So if it isn't yet, just keep going. The best way to get it this way without drying it out is to place your rack about 1/3 from the top in the oven. (BEFORE you put it in the oven; this will not help much in the last 5 minutes.) Not up high to where the top will cook first; not at the bottom to where you'll have a macaroni cracker before you ever start seeing golden-brown cheese. If it's just not browning, you could *carefully* broil it for a minute ~ close to the top ~ for a minute or two. But be sure to keep an eye on it the whole time it's in there. Because it's already been cooking for a long time and is hot, it'll get golden-brown really fast.

It's a real art!

In all actuality, as you have probably guessed by now, I never measure ANYthing for this recipe! Maybe someday I'll get it all figured out, but every time I've tried, I forget something! Any of you "wing it" cooks will probably know exactly what I mean anyway.

Potato Soup

5 cups water / 1/3 cup butter

1 tbsp. parsley flakes / 5 rounded tsp. chicken bouillon

1 tablespoon salt / pepper to taste

6 potatoes, peeled & cubed / 1 stalk celery ~ sliced

2 onions, chopped OR 1 to 3 onion cubes
1 to 3 carrots, peeled and diced or grated (large)
1 13-ounce can evaporated milk
crumbled bacon

CROCK POT METHOD: Put all ingredients except evaporated milk into crock-pot. Cook on high 4 hours or on low for 8 hours. Add milk last 2 hours. (Source and adapted by Barb Shelton; originated from Danita Dieter)

STOVE-TOP METHOD (faster): Put water, butter, parsley flakes, bouillon, salt and pepper into large pot and get heating while you prepare the potatoes. When you put them in the boiling water, start timing: boil 20 min. if your potato chunks are larger, 15 if they're small. (Just check for doneness.) Add celery as soon as you have it chopped (not after the potatoes are done, but as shortly as possible after putting in the potatoes), and then the grated carrots. Then put in the bacon. If you like a thick soup, when the potatoes are done, mix about 1/2 cup of cornstarch with enough cold water to make it pourable, and slowly stir that into the boiling soup. It will thicken quickly. Then pour in the can of evaporated milk, and you've got a delicious dinner! I serve with biscuits, rolls, bread, or muffins.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

This recipe is dedicated to my Dad, Lee Edtl,

whose favorite cookie this is. And I added it to this page

especially for my precious and "very English daughter," Lucy!

(Anyone is welcome to use it, though! )

1-1/2 c. butter or margarine

2 cups brown sugar / 1 cup white sugar

2 eggs / 1/2 cup water / 2 tsp. vanilla

3 c. flour (use *some* whole wheat flour if desired)

2 tsp. salt / 1 tsp. soda

6 cups oatmeal (uncooked)

[Raisins to taste: 2 to 3 cups]

(depending on how much you like them)

Beat together the butter, sugars, eggs, water, and vanilla. Add flour, salt and soda, and mix well. Stir in oats (trying hard to not flick too many all over your kitchen) and raisins if desired.

Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes. If you like softer cookies, bake for less, if you like them darker and crisper, go longer. If you like them burnt, forget they're in the oven and wait till the smoke alarm goes off.