February Swap Details

This month's swap will be held at The Gathering Place--since that seemed to work well for everyone! Welcome back to Casey! We'll swap at 10:00 a.m. Any questions, please let us know!

Category Assignments:
Beef: Josie 
Beef with Pasta: Elizabeth 
Soup: Casey
Chicken: Chastity 
Chicken with Pasta: Suzanne 
Breakfast: Marti 
Other: Melanie 
Soup/Crock Pot: Elisha

Poppyseed Chicken

Ingredients:

-1 pound chicken, cubed and cooked
-16 oz. sour cream
-2 cans cream of chicken soup
-1-2 tsp. poppyseeds
-1 sleeve Ritz crackers
-4-8 tbsp. butter, melted

Directions: Cook chicken. Mix sour cream, soup, poppyseeds and chicken. Place in freezer bags.

From freezer: Thaw. Spread mixture in greased 9x13 dish. Crush crackers and mix with melted butter. Spread over top of chicken mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes. Crackers will brown and edges may bubble. Serve over rice or noodles. (We like ours over rice.)

Melanie's Overnight Caramel French Toast

Ingredients:

-1 cup brown sugar
-1/2 cup butter
-2 tbsp. light corn syrup
-12 slices bread
-1/4 cup sugar
-1 tsp. cinnamon, divided
-6 eggs
-1 and 1/2 cups milk
-1 tsp. vanilla

Directions: In saucepan on medium heat, bring brown sugar, butter and corn syrup to a boil. Pour into greased 9x13 pan. Top with 6 bread slices. Combine sugar and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon and sprinkle half over bread. Place remaining bread on top and sprinkle remaining cinnamon/sugar mixture on top. In large bowl, beat eggs, milk, vanilla, and remaining tsp. cinnamon. Pour over bread. Refrigerate overnight. The next morning, preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake for 30-35 minutes.

From freezer: Take your best guess! I'm assuming we can thaw it and follow the same baking instructions.

**This recipe came from Amish Friends Cookbook by Wanda E. Brunstetter. Mel says everything in this book is good!

Marinated Mini Ham & Cheese Sandwiches

In the spirit of game day appetizers I decided to try something new! I found the original recipe here and adapted it to be a freezer recipe. Hope you enjoy and may the best team win!

Ingredients:

Marinade:

6 T butter

1/8 cup sweet onion, minced

1 Tablespoon poppy seeds

1/4 teaspoon minced garlic

1/2 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 Tablespoons yellow mustard

1/8 cup brown sugar

1/2 Tablespoon chopped parsley

Sandwiches:

12 (about 2 x 2-Inches each) small dinner rolls

mayonnaise

12 (about 1/3 lb.) thin slices of deli ham

12 (about 1/4 pound) thin slices of Swiss cheese

Preparation:

To prepare marinade, saute minced sweet onion in butter over low heat until onion is soft and translucent. Add poppy seeds, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and brown sugar. Stir until brown sugar is melted into the sauce. Remove from heat and stir in parsley. Set marinade aside to cool while you assemble the buns.

Slice the buns in half. Spread bottoms of buns with a thin layer of mayonnaise. Fold ham slices to fit the bottom of each bun. Repeat with Swiss cheese slices, folding to fit buns. Replace bun tops. Place ham and cheese buns onto foil. Pour marinade evenly over buns. Cover tightly with foil. Refrigerate overnight or freeze.

Serving Day: DO NOT THAW! Preheat oven to 350 F. Bake marinated buns covered for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 10 minutes.

Company's Coming Beef by Alison

Here is the recipe that I used for the beef. I multiplied it by four then divided to make 8 family portions. I used my roaster oven and cooked it at 250 degrees for 8 hours.

3 lbs lean roast, cut into cubes (I used bottom round)

1 package onion soup mix

1 can cream of mushroom soup (I used Campbell's Healthy Request)

1/2 C. beef broth (I used lower sodium)

1 can sliced mushrooms (optional)

Cut up meat and place in crockpot. Pour in the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly. Cook for 8-10 hours on low. Serve over noodles. (I broke up the meat at the end.)

On Serving Day: Thaw and reheat the beef, cook noodles according package instructions and serve the beef over the noodles.

Baked Tamale Pie

This is a winter family favorite. I'm not sure where the original recipe came from, but if I figure it out, I'll let you know! Below is the original recipe if you make it all yourself and then the adaptations for the freezer.

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef

1 small onion, chopped

1 can (14.5 oz.) diced tomatoes, undrained

1 can (12 oz.) corn, drained

1 can (8 oz.) tomato sauce

1 Tbsp. chili powder

1 tsp. ground cumin

1 box of Jiffy cornbread mix (1 egg and 1/3 cup milk to add to the mix)

1/2 cup shredded cheese (we use Mexican or Taco blend)

To prepare:

In an oven safe skillet, brown the ground beef with the onion until cooked through. Drain the excess grease. Add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, corn, chili powder, and cumin to the skillet and bring to a boil. Turn heat down and allow to simmer for at least 10 minutes. Mix the cornbread batter and pour over the meat mixture. Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes or until cornbread is done. Immediately top with cheese. Serve in wedges.

From freezer:

Meat mixture was frozen after the 10 minutes of simmering. Thaw meat mixture and pour into an 8x8 or round baking dish. Mix the cornbread batter and spread on top of the meat mixture. Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes or until cornbread is done. Immediately top with cheese.

Yummy served with black beans on the side!

January Swap

Happy New Year! Our January swap snuck up on me! We will be swapping meals next week at The Gathering Place at 10:00 a.m. Park in the back of the building and we'll go inside where it's a little warmer to make the trade! :) We'd like to welcome a friend of Elizabeth's, Allison, this month, to our group. Allison is subbing for Casey since she's just welcomed baby Jazmin (and she's PRECIOUS!) into their family and is settling into life again.

Happy cooking!

The categories for January are....

Beef: Elizabeth

Beef with Pasta: Allison

Soup: Chastity

Chicken: Suzanne

Chicken with Pasta: Marti

Breakfast: Melanie

Other: Elisha

Soup/Crock Pot: Josie