Smoky Sausage Burgers

This is from a collection of recipes that we used to subscribe to called Easy Everyday Cooking. They use to send a bunch of recipes every few weeks in the mail. I don't think we ever actually finished the collection of recipes. I tried it about a week ago for the first time.

Smoky Sausage Burgers
1 pound ground beef (I used extra lean)
1 pound bulk pork sausage (I used Jimmy Dean's extra mild just because I wasn't sure how spicy the others were & I don't really like super-spicy stuff - I might try substituting ground turkey or something else that is a little less fatty than sausage sometime)
1/2 cup finely chopped onion (I omitted this, but I did put in a little onion powder)
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce (I omitted this because I wasn't sure if my husband liked it or not - he said he likes it, so we'll have to try them some other time with it)
1 tablespoon liquid smoke flavoring
2 loaves French bread (we just used regular wheat bread)
Sliced red onion (we didn't use this)
Sliced tomatoes (we didn't use these either)
Serves 6

We actually tried this recipe again just a couple days ago when we had the missionaries from our church over for lunch. We used the Jimmy Dean Regular flavor ground sausage & we actually used the Worcestershire sauce this time too. We used regular burger buns instead of the French bread. We did have tomatoes, lettuce, and pickles to use too, as well as a variety of cheese slices. They turned out really well the second time too!

Michelle

Banana Bread

We are back from Christmas vacation and attempting to get back into the swing of things. I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas. I am way excited about the goodies Santa brought me for the kitchen...cotton dish towels, restaurant quality muffin tins with plastic covers, and a stainless steel 9x13 pan. Normally I don't get too excited about new stuff for the kitchen but I have wanted these items for so long to replace items that were either worn out or had been broken. There's something to be said about having stainless steel and restaurant quality aluminum in the kitchen as opposed to glass and stoneware - especially if you have kids! LOL :)

Today's recipe is one that my mother-in-law Beth gave me many years ago. It is a little different with having butterscotch bits and cherries in it but oh so yummy. It is a family favorite around here and the kids beg me to make it. My DH does not like cherries, so I usually divide the batter and make half with and half without. So here you go Christi, a great way to use up those bananas!

1/3 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs well beaten
3 Tablespoons sour milk (buttermilk for those of you not from the South)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
3 mashed bananas
1 cup nuts
1 10 oz. jar maraschino cherries, drained and halved
6 oz. butterscotch chips

Cream together butter and sugar. Add all other ingredients, mix well. Pour batter into loaf pans and bake at 350 degrees for one hour or until done. Makes one large loaf or two small loaves.

New name for our blog...

Well I can no longer call our recipe blog "Down Home Delicious" because apparently it is copyrighted as there is a published cookbook by that name. If anyone can suggest a name that is not already in use or copyrighted, I'd love to hear it. Meanwhile, I guess we'll call it "Embry Family Recipes". We are enjoying the holidays with family right now and I'll be back to posting recipes next week. I hope everyone has had a fabulous Christmas.

Basic Gravy

My daughter brought this recipe home from a Young Women's meeting where they were learning how to cook. It is by far the easiest gravy recipe I have ever tried. Now it is my go to gravy recipe.

1 Tablespoon Butter
1 heaping Tablespoon flour
1 cup pan drippings or broth

In a skillet, melt butter. Do not allow the butter to burn or go dark brown. Sprinkle flour across butter. Blend to make a roux ( a creamy, buttery paste). Little by little add the stock. Simmer until thickened.

Bittersweet Chocolate Truffles

I printed this recipe from the Food Network website a while back. I wouldn't even know where to begin to buy vanilla beans much less how to scrape one. So I just add pure vanilla and call it good. :)

20 oz. bittersweet chocolate, in a block or pistoles
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
pinch of salt
1/2 vanilla bean, scraped
2 1/2 ounces butter

Finely chop the chocolate block or use pistoles. The size of the chocolate pieces is key. Make sure the chocolate is in small pieces so that the heat from the boiled cream can melt all of the chocolate.

Place the chopped chocolate in a large non-reactive bowl. In a medium saucepan, bring cream, salt, and vanilla bean to a boil. Once mixture has boiled and foamed up, immediately remove the pan from the heat and pour it over the chocolate. Let chocolate and cream mixture sit for 3 minutes. With a wooden spoon, begin stirring in small circles in the middle of the bowl. As the smooth mixture begins to form in the middle, slowly expand the size of the circle until the cream and chocolate is fully incorporated. Remove vanilla bean and stir in butter. Cover mixture and let sit until firm.

Fill a piping bag or zip top freezer bag with the truffle mixture and pipe into 1 tablespoon size dollops. Allow dollops to set up until they are firm. Roll dollops into rounded truffles. Truffles can be coated in powdered sugar, cocoa powder, ground nuts, coconut, etc.

Quick Measures and Equivalencies

I came across these measurements years ago and have them written down on a couple of very dog eared pieces of paper. I though y'all might find them as useful as I have.

Dash = less than 1/8 teaspoon
3 teaspoons = 1 Tablespoon
4 Tablespoons = 1/4 cup
5 Tablespoons + 1 tsp. = 1/3 cup
6 Tablespoons = 3/8 cup
10 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons = 2/3 cups
12 Tablespoons = 3/4 cup
16 Tablespoons = 1 cup
2 Tablespoons = 1 fluid ounce
2 Tablespoons fat or butter = 1 ounce
juice of one lemon = about 3 Tablespoons
1 cup lemon juice = juice of 4-6 lemons
juice of one orange = about 1/2 cup
grated peel of 1 lemon = about 1 1/2 teaspoons
grated peel of 1 orange = about 1 Tablespoon

1 lb. of flour = 4 cups
1 lb. of cornmeal = 3 cups
1 lb. of cornstarch = 3 cups
1 lb. of granulated sugar = 2 cups
1 lb. of brown sugar = 3 cups
1 lb. of powdered sugar = 3 1/2 cups
1 lb. of raisins = 3 cups
1 lb. of rice = 2 cups
1 lb. of macaroni = 4 cups
1 lb. of potatoes = 2 cups diced
1 lb. of chopped onions = 3 cups
1 lb. of bananas = 3 medium

Monster Cookies

Well I am back, and yes, it's another cookie recipe. This is another recipe my grandmother gave me that we only make at Christmastime. It is a family favorite and anyone who tastes these cookies loves them! Be warned, it makes a LOT of dough. It takes a 5 gallon bucket to be able to mix them and of course they have to mixed by hand. You can break the recipe down, but we've found that for some reason that while they are still good when you break the recipe down, they just aren't quite the same.

1 dozen eggs
1 lb. butter
6 cups brown sugar
3 cups granulated sugar
3 Tablespoons white syrup
1/4 cup vanilla
3 lbs. peanut butter
8 teaspoons baking soda
18 cups quick oatmeal
1 lb. chocolate chips
1 lbs. chopped nuts
1 lb. golden raisins

Mix eggs, butter, syrup, vanilla, and both sugars in a VERY large bowl. This will need lots of stirring!!! Add peanut butter and mix well. Add baking soda, oatmeal, and chopped nuts. Stir in chocolate chips and raisins. Shape into balls and place on a greased cookies sheet (we prefer to line ours with parchment paper), and bake at 350 degrees for 8-12 minutes. Check after 7-8 minutes.

Variation: Omit nuts & raisins. Decrease chocolate chips to 12 oz. and add 1 lb. of M & M's.