Aunt Ruthie’s Toffee, image by The Tromp Queen CC license 4.0
Aunt Ruthie’s Terrific Toffee recipe.
Aunt Ruthie has been gone a little over 9 years now. I think of her often and miss her so much!
My Dad was one of 8 children. Aunt Ruthie was one of his older sisters. Way into her late 80’s she was “taking care of the old people.” She would make pounds and pounds of Christmas candy and home-made noodles and baked goods each year (fudge, toffee, pecan rolls, cinnamon rolls, butterhorn rolls, and more). All through the Holiday season, lots of goodies would be sitting on top of her washer and dryer on her screened-in porch (between the kitchen and garage). Friends and family could help themselves as they were coming or going from her house. She was tiny, feisty, hard-working, witty and quick-to-laugh. She loved the Cubs and the Republican Party! She collected Hummel figurines, old dishes and various antiques. She was a FABULOUS cook.
I visit Aunt Ruthie’s grave whenever I get back to visit that area. She and her husband, Uncle Spike (his real name was Dale, but he lost both hands in a corn picker and wore metal hooks that opened and closed so he could drive and do all sorts of things) are buried in a little country graveyard a couple miles from the nearest small town, just down the road from where my cousins now live in a new house built on her old farm land.
Agate gravestone
Their headstone is a huge agate rock that was found on their farm. Aunt Ruthie had it polished and cut when Uncle Spike died in a tragic car accident when I was 15 years old.
I could write many blogs posts just about Aunt Ruthie and Uncle Spike, but I will not keep you waiting for the recipe any longer!
Aunt Ruthie’s Toffee
1 c. packed brown sugar
2 sticks of butter
chopped pecans
good quality semi-sweet chocolate chips or bars
In a saucepan, heat the sugar and butter on medium heat until it reaches 280 degrees. (My mom’s note says you “can turn it on high” 🙂 Stir most of the time.
Butter a pan (jelly roll type or cookie sheet). Crush or finely chop pecans (or whatever nuts you like) and spread them around on the buttered pan.
(I would probably toast them first, but I don’t think Aunt Ruthie did that).
Pour hot the sugar mixture over the nuts. When it sets up some, put chocolate on top (chips or broken up bars). It will melt. Spread the chocolate around. Break it into pieces when it has cooled.
Enjoy!
Thank you, dear Aunt Ruthie!
*Note to readers: I previously published this same recipe in a “recipe re-visit” here, on The Tromp Queen blog, and also as a Facebook note. I’m posting it again so that it has its own place here now.
In the last few years I have grown to enjoy three-bean salad. You know, the kind my Mom likes — with kidney beans, green beans and wax beans, etc. in a sweet vinegary dressing?
I definitely did NOT like this type of salad when I was younger, but I must have acquired the taste for it somewhere along the line because I often make it now.
Recently, we were getting ready to grill brats (which is practically a required summer activity in Wisconsin), and I suddenly realized I didn’t have anything for a side dish. I thought of making three bean salad, and went to my pantry cupboard to see if I had all the ingredients. Well, I had most everything but not all the “usual” ingredients — so I’ll share what I came up with because I think it turned out to be very tasty.
Ingredients:
1 (15 oz.) can chickpeas 1 (15 oz.) can green beans 1 (15 oz.) can wax beans (yellowish, light green beans) 12 oz. jar marinated artichoke hearts (quartered or chopped is fine) 1 cucumber (peeled, seeded, diced) 1 small onion (diced) Red onion is pretty if you have it. (if I had had celery or green pepper I would have diced them and added that, too)
Drain all the canned ingredients. Rinse the beans. You could decide not to drain the artichokes (and just add the marinade to the dressing) but I didn’t do that this time. Combine all the above ingredients in a large bowl and mix gently.
In a small to medium-sized bowl combine these ingredients for the dressing:
1/4 c olive oil 1/4 c red wine vinegar 1 teaspoon sugar 1 teaspoon yellow mustard (any kind is fine) 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
That is it.
If you have time to make this ahead and chill it, the flavor would be even better. I sometimes use fresh green beans or a bag of frozen green beans (cooked and chilled); they taste better than canned.
Suggested tweaks: Next time I might add some kalamata or green pimento stuffed olives. Maybe dill or a little garlic? A squirt of lemon juice?
The original recipe calls for 1 can (15 oz.) dark red kidney beans in place of the artichokes and doesn’t have the cucumber. But now that I’ve had three bean salad with cucumber and artichokes, I really like them in there. I would add them AND the kidney beans next time. In the past, I’ve also added other kind of beans I’ve had on had such as butter beans (which my Mom loves), baby limas, black beans, pinto beans, etc. If you add several more kinds of beans, you will need to double the dressing recipe and scale up the other ingredients as well (onion, celery, etc.)
I hope you enjoy this Tromp Queen tweak to traditional Three Bean Salad.
Please let me know if you try it and how you like it!
Yet another simple addition: Pasta! (and maybe shredded carrots, too?)
I was scrounging around looking for something for lunch recently. I found a couple of cans of tuna in the pantry and decided to whip up some tuna salad. I had boiled a couple of extra eggs that morning which was handy, since my recipe uses chopped boiled eggs.
This is how I like to make it:
You’ll need 2 cans of good quality tuna — solid albacore is my choice (in oil if I’m splurging). Open the cans, drain them thoroughly.
Dump the tuna into a nice sized bowl.
Break up the tuna with a fork.
Splash a little lemon juice on the tuna (about 1 t. or more if you like a lot of lemon).
Add a couple dashes of salt if you aren’t watching salt intake.
Dice a couple of stalks of celery and a small amount of onion (about 1/4 of a smallish onion or less).
Add the celery and onion to the tuna.
Add 2 T. (or more) of sweet pickle relish including some extra juice and a squirt of yellow mustard (French’s).
I like to add about 1/2 t. of dill, but you can leave that out if you don’t like dill.
Peel the eggs and using an egg slicer, cut the egg three ways. The eggs go in the bowl, too.
At this point, add several dollops of Hellmann’s Mayo. How much depends on how saucy you like your tuna.
I like mine fairly dry, but moist enough to hang together.
My mom usually adds a small sprinkle of sugar (about 1/2 t.) but I don’t always do that.
Other add ins I like but don’t always add are: chopped green pimento stuffed olives or chopped pecans.
A little chopped fresh parsley would be good, too.
image via Flickr CC by cookbookman17; Fresh Parsley — A bunch of freshly picked parsley.
Stir it all together and let it cool in the fridge if you have time. If not, just pile it on the best whole wheat bread you can find and top it off with some fresh lettuce. I like mine cut diagonally.
Summary of ingredients needed:
2 cans of solid albacore tuna (in oil or water)
2 stalks of celery
a small onion
3 hard-boiled eggs
sweet pickle relish
dried dill from Penzeys (or fresh if you have it)
yellow mustard (French’s)
Hellmann’s mayo
salt, sugar
optionals: green olives, parsley
If you are making just 1 can of tuna, just use less of all the other ingredients. I would use one boiled egg for one can. If you don’t have time for making a boiled egg, you can leave the eggs out all together. I just like them in there, though.
I found this photo on Flickr (Creative Commons). It has cilantro and dijon in it. Sounds good! Maybe I’ll try it that way next time. You can find the recipe for this version here.
Dijon-Cilantro Tuna Salad on Whole Grain Bread Read about it at thebittenword.typepad.com/thebittenword
“Willie’s Chili” by Lon Farenwald Some Rights Reserved
This recipe reminds me of Azar’s Big Boy Restaurant’s Chili Spaghetti that I loved to eat as a young girl growing up in northern Indiana. I don’t know how far the Azar’s chain reached, but there were several within an hour of my hometown. We often ate at the one in Glenbrook Mall (later it became Glenbrook Square) in Fort Wayne. Their signature sandwich was the Big Boy, a double-decker cheeseburger with cheese and a special sauce (similar to a Big Mac but with a unique Azar’s taste). I also remember their delicious strawberry pie! I will share my mom’s recipe for making that pie in a future blog post (when strawberry time arrives!).
Ingredients:
1 lb. 85% lean ground chuck
Brown the beef in a dutch oven or other large pan with a lid.
Measure all these spices into a small dish:
4 t. chili powder 1 t. cardamom 1 t. ground (or grated) nutmeg 1/4 t. allspice 1/4 t. cayenne pepper 1/4 t. ground coriander 1/4 t. garlic powder 1 1/4 t. salt 1/4 t. ground black pepper
When the beef is browned and drained, use a potato masher (old fashioned utensil) to smash and break up the meat into very small pieces.
Add: 2 T. cornstarch to 1/2 c. cold water.
Stir. Add this to the beef in the pan. It should thicken up pretty quickly.
Throw in the small dish of spices and stir. Heat this mixture for a minute or so until you start to smell the spices.
Add: 1 box of beef broth (32 oz.) 1 small can of tomato paste (6 oz.) 1 can of dark red kidney beans, drained 1 T. white vinegar
Do not forget the vinegar! It really brings the flavors together.
Stir to mix thoroughly. Bring to a boil, then lower heat, cover and simmer for 45 minutes or longer as needed.
Meanwhile, toward the end of the sauce cooking time — heat a large pot of boiling salted water and cook 1 lb. of pasta. To recreate my childhood memories, I use spaghetti but you could use any shape of pasta.
I sometimes add two cans of kidney beans, but that is up to you.
To serve, spoon the sauce onto the hot pasta. Top with powdered parmesan cheese (the kind with the green lid). Real Parmesan is good, of course, but again — my childhood memories dictate powdered Parmesan. Azar’s was not a posh place. 🙂
SO GOOD! I hope you enjoy this recipe. Please leave a comment if you try it. I’d love to hear from you.
This is a unique twist on chili and on spaghetti. I have heard that this is sometimes called Cincinnati chili and people eat it with onions and cheese (and other toppings).
As always, I use Penzey’s spices. Quality makes a difference! (I do not work for them, I just love their spices.)
This is the bowl I used to make the rivels. Flour, salt and pepper, then make a well. Stir an egg around til it gathers enough flour to hold together. Scrape fork fulls off into the simmering soup pot. Cook through. Rivels will be chewy even when done.
Finished! Garnished w/ crispy bacon and freshly ground black pepper. This is the actual soup I made. TTQ cc
I have been craving my mom’s potato soup. I wasn’t going to make it a blog post, but I am not in the mood to try something new (or even cook at all for that matter) so I reconsidered. In keeping with my minimal effort attitude today, I decided to look online for some photos so I don’t have to actually MAKE the soup before I write this post (since I have time to write right now but there isn’t a meal coming for several more hours yet).
Well, in the end, I couldn’t find any images that closely resemble my mom’s soup so now I think I MUST write it up and photograph it for my recipe blog as soon as possible!
The potato soup gauntlet has been thrown down.
Last Christmas I created a cookbook of my mom’s family recipes using Shutterfly. I was quite happy with the finished product, and I think she was surprised and pleased as punch. This soup recipe is included in that book, and I’m happy to share it with you!
4 to 6 potatoes (my mom likes Idaho)
water to cover the potatoes and vegs (or chicken broth)
1 T. butter (or more to taste)
a little onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped (include all the leaves if you have them)
1 carrot, shredded or very finely chopped (opt.)
parsley, opt. (I don’t think my mom used this very often. If you use parsley fresh would be better; add it near the end of the cooking time)
flour
2 eggs
salt and pepper
milk (or half and half)
garnish with crispy bacon and/or thinly sliced green onions
some people like grated cheddar cheese on top, or stirred in
Image by Kristin (beautyredefined) via Flickr CC
Peel and dice the taties. Boil them in water (or broth) to cover. Season the water with plenty of salt and pepper.
Meanwhile in a small skillet melt the 1 T. butter, and add the onion, celery (and carrots, any other vegs if using). After they get softened and get a little color, add the vegs to the boiling potato pot. The taties will take about 20 min. to cook. (Note — you can skip this step of cooking the vegs in a skillet with butter and just toss them in with the potatoes at the start. I think it tastes better to cook them a little separately first. But you are in charge!)
Keep poking the taties with a fork as they boil. When taties are nearly done, begin to make the rivels. Put 1 C. flour and a little salt and pepper in a bowl and make a well in the center of the flour. Stir two eggs up and pour them into the well with a fork, pulling bits of flour in as you stir gently. Scrape the small blobs onto the simmering soup until all the egg is gone. All the flour will not be used. Use as many or as few blobs as you like. As it boils, the rivels will cook but will still be pretty chewy.
Turn the heat way down. Add milk or half and half to get the consistency you want for your soup. Heat gently but don’t boil it at this point or it will curdle.
Serve steaming hot garnished with some crispy bacon and slivers of green onions on top.
I sometimes add leftover ham to this soup. Home made buttermilk or baking soda biscuits go great to eat with this hearty, satisfying soup. A fresh salad with lots of crunchy vegetables would be nice, too.
For a vegetarian version, you would obviously leave off the bacon and use water or vegetable stock.
Finished! Garnished w/ crispy bacon and freshly ground black pepper. This is the actual soup I made. TTQ cc
I’m guessing this recipe is a combination of recipes from my mom’s and my dad’s families. They both grew up in the same small town and were grade school sweethearts, graduating from HS together in 1949. Dad went into the Army and then they got married in 1952.
Dad was the youngest of eight children, living on a farm in central Indiana during the Depression. Their lives were not easy by any stretch of the imagination. Dad’s dad died on his 13th birthday, so his mom was a single Mom through most of the Depression years. Dad’s favorite foods included mashed potatoes, noodles, homemade bread, potato soup — inexpensive and filling foods that could be made with very simple ingredients. Flour, eggs, milk, potatoes, butter, broth — I assume they grew or made most of these things on their farm.
My mom’s family was a “town” family. Her dad was a mechanic, a fireman and town councilman. My mom’s family probably had more income, but my grandparents on that side were extremely frugal. They saved EVERYTHING, and though my grandma on that side was also a very good cook, she didn’t make the same buttery, starchy foods my dad’s family made.
I’ll share more family recipes in the future.
I looked for a video to show how to make the rivels, and I found this little gem. The music is very fun. I have never heard of garnishing with boiled eggs! Proceed at your own risk. I will add photos to this post of rivels when I actually make the soup next time, okay?
Here are several potato soup recipes similar to mine: It is interesting to me that several mention Indiana, Amish, German heritage and/or Grandmothers.
The Tromp Queen COOKS! 