Recipes for GRACE? Tag! YOU are IT!

My blog, "Recipes for Grace",  is basically a blog spot for food. I usually POST about food! But today I feel obliged to post about grace. Do you feel grace in your day? I'm frankly searching for it often these days. I am a blessed, happy person but lately I feel the displeasure of the world and almost as if in concert, humanity is saying "Pfffft people, you all are just stinkin' awful." Well. Use stronger language if you'd like. I did, under my breath.

What is UP, my friends? Why the social- media/TV news- casting basicly bad mannered-all-time low LACK of good manners and basic Golden-Rule living?? WHY? Where is the GRACE? Where's the love your neighbor as yourself thinking?

I want to see, feel and hear the good news of the world. I know it's not all pretty. I realize we are not handed life, tied in a bright pink bow, served on a platter of love-- kind of world anymore. BUT. I see you. I see the ones who pay it forward at the drive-thru window, helping the yelling mom behind you, who is frustrated by screaming kids who are tired and hungry. I SEE the person helping an elderly woman out of her flooded home. So. THERE'S the grace. It's the still small voice that is tamped down because the complainers are getting more attention and frankly, more news media at 5:00 PM today.

I want to hug those of you who are showing grace and I say to you:  I see your love and I feel its effect, though small. I wish I could cook you all some apple brownies, wrapped in pink bows of love. Look past the complaints. Feel the hugs. Help me feed the hungry. And let's all fuel humanity with the GRACE of daily living....one. day at a time. I see YOU. Keep up the grace! Goodness and mercy and the Golden Rule? It IS what it's all about!

Recipes to follow, ...well,after recipes for grace!
Love and peace,
Marci

Banana Bread with Chocolate chips

This recipe is probably the most asked about, over the years.  When bananas are turning brown, this is what I do with them! The recipe originated from a kids' play group that I initiated in Lawton, OK in the 90's and comes from Judi McCormick. Judi, if you are out there in blog world or Facebook land, the only thing I tweaked was adding chocolate!!!

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

3 very ripe bananas, mashed with a fork
3/4 cup sugar
pinch salt
1 egg
1/4 cup butter, melted (DO NOT substitute margarine)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tbsp. water (if bananas are small, sometimes two tbsp.)
2 cups, minus 2 tbsp. all purpose flour
1 cup, chocolate chips, reserving half for the top of the batter. 

Blend all ingredients in bowl with the mashed bananas. Stir by hand until mostly smooth. Use either 2 smaller or one large loaf pan. Spray with butter and sprinkle a tsp of sugar in the bottom. Batter is thick and will need to be spooned into pans. Lastly, sprinkle half of the chips on top. Option: I have used white chips when I have them. Either or BOTH, are good!

This is always a hit at coffee time at church, breakfast at home, munching anywhere, anytime.
ENJOY. :)

Shrimp Creole Learned in the New Orleans Cooking School.

This recipe came directly from my experience at a cooking school:  The New Orleans School of Cooking on St. Louis Street in New Orleans! I was there a few years ago.Ok. I was there MANY years ago (1994 maybe)  and I pull out this recipe for special occasions. I may or may not have had a Pat O'Brien's Hurricane headache the day of the cooking class, from the previous night. :) I promised a few friends that I'd post it on here for you to make/share. ENJOY!

Shrimp Creole Ingredients:
3 lbs. peeled shrimp     
1 stick butter
8 tbsp. flour
1 can 14-16 oz. tomato sauce
Trinity of:
2 c. chopped onions
1 c. chopped celery
1 c. chopped green pepper
1 tbsp. chopped garlic
1 c. chopped green onion
1 c. chopped parsley
1 tbsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. basil
3 bay leaves
3. cups chicken stock
1 tbsp. brown sugar
4 thin lemon slices
Joes's Stuff seasoning to taste
rice
Procedure:
Saute shrimp in butter for 2-3 minutes and remove; add flour and stir over medium heat (making rue) until lightly browned.
Add onions, celery, gr. pepper, garlic and saute' the veggies until transparent. Add stock, tomato sauce, rest of herbs and seasonings, sugar and lemon. Simmer at least 15 minutes.
Add green onions, parsley, and shrimp during last 5 minutes. Serve over rice.
Makes about 8 servings.

Marci's options:
I use twice the tomato and I use a can of stewed, a can of diced. I then add about a tbsp. of tomato paste. When I can, I use seafood stock or vegetable stock instead of chicken stock. Any herb seasoning will do (like blackened or seafood seasoning) if you cannot find Joe's stuff. ( think they sold it there) The lemons are a MUST. Let them cook away, for longer. Actually I make the whole thing several hours ahead and put it in the crockpot, adding the final ingredients the last 5-10 minutes. Shrimp get rubbery if you cook them longer!!!

Next? Bread pudding? I really need to blog more recipes, because it's so fun to me!!
Enjoy, family and friends.

Spanish Rice, passed down from Mom

Spanish Rice, the way Barbara Ham Stephens made it! 

It's funny: I never think of making this for anyone unless I'm missing Mom. I make it for Dad when I visit, usually. I make it when asked. But my kids don't know much about it because I make it more for Dad in SC than I do here in KY. Here's the recipe for ALL of us!

1-2 pounds lean ground beef, browned
1 onion, chopped into large pieces
1 green pepper, also chopped into large pieces
Add onion and pepper to beef after it is mostly browned through, about 10 minutes after beginning to cook it.
Add one large can of crushed tomatoes and one small can of tomato sauce
Let this simmer, flavoring with garlic powder, onion salt and pepper, until onions are opaque.
Next, add about one cup of minute rice. This amount will depend on the juices from tomatoes. You may need a bit more or less rice. I use brown rice, lately. After about 10 more minutes, transfer this to a casserole dish and sprinkle 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese over the top and bake in the oven at 350 for about 18 minutes or until bubbling. Serves at least 4 hungry folks.

Yes, it's that simple! Enoy!

A Thanksgiving Staple at Our House

Cran-apple crunch is a Thanksgiving staple in the Randall 'must-haves' line up, every year. I think the first person to make it for our family when I was a youngster was my Aunt Norma. I recall that we all loved it so well, that she made it each year after it appeared on the scene in the late 60's or early 70's. We used to have a huge dinner with all of Mom's sisters and families. There were 10 cousins, 3 aunts and uncles, my family of four and Meme - those were the days! Now, my family enjoys it every year too! It's the one recipe I follow exactly, so here it is for you!

Cran-apple Crunch
2 cups fresh cranberries (or one bag)
3 cups apples chopped unpeeled
Cover the first 2 ingredients with 1/2 cup sugar  in a 9x12 casserole dish.

Melt: 1 stick butter
Add: 1 cup oatmeal, 1/2 pecans, 1/3 cup flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar
Spread this mixture over the cranberries and apples.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until bubbly and browned.

Enjoy next year! I was too busy cooking to add this before Thanksgiving 2015. Hope yours was as blessed as mine.

Apple Brownies

Friends are coming over soon and it's fall so it's time for Apple Brownies!
I only make these for special occasions because if I made them for Terry and me, we'd eat them until they are gone - not good for the waistline! By the way this is an amended Blonde Brownies recipe, so substitute away...I did!

Recipe:
Preheat oven to 350
2/3 cup butter (or margarine)
2 cups brown sugar, either type-dark or light
2 eggs
1tsp.vanilla
1/2 cup nuts ( I use pecans)
1 1/2 cups flour (I know...more sugar that flour...)
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1-1 1/2 cups diced apples
1 cup white chocolate chips

Melt butter; stir in ingredients as listed, after butter cools a bit. Fold in apples last and then sprinkle chips on the top after you have poured the batter into a 9x12 pan. Bake about 25 minutes. Watch carefully for browning.
ENJOY....

Pumpkin Bars and Cream cheese Icing, from scratch - The work of Barbara Stephens, passed down.

It's fall, 2013. The day dawned chilly with a promise of sunshine to come later in the day. Maybe...Meanwhile, I pulled down mom's recipes, determined to bake from the original version of my mother's pumpkin bars. Yes, her recipe is much like any found on the web, these days. Here's the original version of Baker Barbara's Pumpkin bars.

4 eggs
1 c. vegetable oil/crisco
2 c. sugar
1-15oz. can of pumpkin
Mix the above ingredients in the mixer.
Then add:
2 c. flour
2tsp.baking powder
1tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2tsp cinnamon
1/2 each, of ginger, cloves, and nutmeg
Add to the liquid mixture, slowly.

Pour into a greased 12x18 pan and bake at 350 degrees, 30 minutes.

Marci's substitutions:
I used 1/2 cup oil and 1/2 cup apple butter.
Used pumpkin pie spice instead of each individual spice. I added an extra tsp. of cinnamon.

Icing:
6-8 oz. cream cheese (I use the 1/3 less fat)
6 tblsp. butter
1-3 tblsp. milk...drizzle in as you are mixing
4-5 cups of powdered sugar, depending on how thick/thin you like icing.
1 tsp. vanilla.
Beat cream cheese and butter first, until soft. Add sugar alternating with milk. It doesn't matter what % fat the milk is. It's a matter of preference. If you want me to decide, use 2%!

Spread icing on cooled bars. Enjoy!

I've been making this for years. Sometimes I add raisins and pecans.

Let me know if you use this and do any of your own substitutions!