Thursday's Recipes

First of all - a belated Happy Birthday to my niece, Sara Marie Walker. I am so sorry I spaced your birthday yesterday. I wasn't feeling well and so I just blew the whole day! I love you and hope you had an amazing birthday. You certainly deserve it.

Now to the business at hand. I hope you enjoy these recipes. The first one is one that I make mostly in the Autumn and Winter simply because it is just those kind of flavors. I fix this for Clyde a couple of times a month for breakfast and serve it with fresh whipped cream. He gets his fresh fruit in the side.

Pumpkin Gingerbread Waffles
1 cup flour (you can use 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 white if desired)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

In a bowl stir together dry ingredients. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir well. If the mixture is thick add a bit of regular milk or water until the it is the right consistency. (Sometimes buttermilk comes very thick). Pour as much as your waffle baker uses and cook according to manufacturer's directions. Serve with maple syrup, apple sauce or whipped cream.

** Note: If you have Pumpkin Pie Spice - use 2 teaspoons of that instead of measuring out all of the spices.
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This is what I take to every potluck (linger-longer's is what they are called here) we have at Church. I have yet to bring any home. It is a recipe that I have had since we lived in Kerrville and I would fix it there when we would stay all day for General Conference. Then I would bring it in a large roaster and several times I had it spill all over the back of my car. Now I have made the recipe crockpot friendly! My crockpot has a snap down lid so no more spills in the back of my car! I made this at Carianne's when we were there this summer - same results. Everyone loved it and very few leftovers and there were not the swarms of people there like there are Church.

10 Bean Crockpot Special
1/2 pound bulk Italian sausage (I can't always find bulk sausage so I just strip off the casings from the links)
1/4 pound pepperoni sausage sliced thin and then in half again
1/2 pound smoked Kielbasa, sliced thin and then in half again
16 ounce can pork and beans, un-drained
16 ounce can red kidney beans, un-drained
16 ounce can chili beans with meat, un-drained
16 ounces pinto beans, drained
16 ounces Canellini (white kidney beans) drained
16 ounces butter beans, drained
1 cup frozen Lima beans
16 ounces black beans, drained
16 ounces navy beans, drained
16 ounces pink beans, drained
1 can tomato soup, undiluted
3 ounces tomato paste
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup spicy barbecue sauce
6 slice bacon fried crisp and broken up

Brown the Italian sausage in a skillet and drain well. Dump into a 12-cup crockpot. Fry off the bacon and slice up or break up. Add all the meats to the crockpot. Add all of the beans, stirring after each addition. Mix in the tomato soup. Stir in the tomato past, brown sugar and barbecue sauce. Mix all the ingredients well. Cook on low for 3 hours. Serves 16-20.

** Note: I usually dump the whole pound of Italian sausage and Kielbasa into the crockpot along with the whole package of slice pepperoni I get. This could be why the men especially love this dish. At Carianne's we couldn't find Italian Sausage so I can't remember if we used breakfast sausage or chorizo but it was sure good.

I figure that I never know how frequently I will be making the dish so it isn't advantageous to freeze the leftover meats because they could be in the freezer way too long. I would rather buy everything fresh as needed. If your crockpot can hold more beans - feel free to add them but drain them. This gets pretty soupy pretty quick. This originally started out as a 6 bean casserole.

It is an expensive dish. I figure it costs me about $20 every time I make it. On the other hand how could I possible feed so many people for so little money?

Things I am thankful for: the ability to make wonderful dishes like these, the foods to make dishes like these, a great crockpot, that I am feeling better this morning.