Tomato Cucumber Salad

The farmhouse in Barker, New York

Our dog Toby

Mom and Dad bought a farm in upstate New York in the town of Barker. Dad was the Superintendent of Schools there and Mom was a substitute teacher. She eventually went on and got her teaching degree while they lived there. Barker was a small farming town. The largest industry aside from the school was a vegetable/fruit packing plan. I used to visit with my kids over the summers. It never stopped Dad from assigning chores even after having the kids! I spent a couple of hours a day in their vegetable garden pulling weeds or hoeing. But at the end of the day, there was nothing that tasted better than fresh vegetables from their garden.

This is a simple salad that Dave always likes. I especially enjoy making this when I can get both red and yellow cherry or grape tomatoes. No only does it taste delicious but it looks fantastic!

Tomato Cucumber Salad:

Dad enjoying the pool!

1 pint of cherry or grape tomatoes - washed, dried and halved (or
get a pint of both yellow and red and use half of each)
2 long English cucumbers or tender regular cucumbers
1/4 cup finely diced red onion
1 cup pitted olives - halved (if small ones, no need to cut them)
1/4 cup feta cheese - crumbled
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
3 tbsp of a zesty Italian salad dressing
Salt and Pepper to taste

In a salad serving bowl add salad dressing, basil and red onion whisk for a few seconds. Taste for need of salt and pepper. Now add olives, cucumbers and tomatoes gently toss. Sprinkle on top with feta cheese.
Refrigerate covered for at least an hour before serving.

My Carrot Cake



Dave the "Carrot Cake Critic"

I never needed to make carrot cake. I had a friend that would always make it for our festivities. But alas, we are no longer friends so I had to try and come up a terrific alternative to her hearty, tasty recipe. I played with several online recipes only to be told by the "critic"....my husband, that it did not have enough stuff in it or it was not moist enough. I then began combining a couple of recipes with what I thought was the best of them. And this is what I came up with. I made this for a Bible Study Dinner Party and it was a hit so I remade it again as cupcakes at this year's Easter Dinner. It was a hit!!!

My Carrot Cake Recipe:
6 cups shredded carrots (I bought 3 packets of shredded carrots from the store)
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 tsps vanilla
1 cup crushed pineapple (squeeze out most of the liquid)
3 cups sifted flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cups raisins (dark or golden or combination)
OPTION: 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

The Family @ Thanksgiving 2011!

In large mixing bowl combine eggs, brown sugar, sugar, vegetable oil, vanilla until well mixed. Fold in shredded carrots and crushed pineapple. In separate bowl sift flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together. Slowly mix the dry mixture into the wet. Once completely mixed turn off mixer. Add raisins by folding into the mixture.

Oven 350*
Grease and flour 2 round 10" cake pans or 9" x 13" rectangular pan or set large cupcake papers into muffin tin. (No need to grease and four). Use ice cream scooper to evenly distribute the mixture into the cupcake papers. Bake 45 - 50 minutes or until toothpick comes out completely clean. Ice when completely cooled.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 package cream cheese
1 package of confectioners sugar
1 stick of butter
1 tsp vanilla

Soften butter and cream cheese to room temperature. Place into deep bowl and using mixer beat until fluffy. Add vanilla and beat again. Slowly add the confectioners sugar (if too quickly it will blow-up all over you!). Use an entire package of confectioners sugar. If the icing becomes too thick, add a tsp of milk at a time until it is smooth but firm. Pipe into bag and decorate cupcakes. Keep cupcakes cool or refrigerated until serving.

Liz's Brussels Sprouts with Cranberries

Nana & Memo with Liz at one week old!

Most people do not like brussel sprouts but we have quite a few in this family that really like them especially if done with different flavors. My daughter, Liz, inspired this recipe. She found one similar and told me how good it was. So I used the family to try out her recipe this Easter. It was quite a hit!

Liz - 1995

Liz's Brussels Sprouts with Cranberries:
2 lbs brussel sprouts - roasted
1/4 cup plive oil
Salt & Pepper
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup dried cranberries
Optional: bacon bits

Wash and half the brussel sprouts. Place on a cookie sheet with olive oil. Roast about 375* for about 10 mins then toss and roast another 10 mins.

I a small saucepan add balsamic vinegar and sugar, bring to a boil. Add cranberries and (bacon bits if desired) simmer until the brussel sprouts are done. Place brussel sprouts in a serving dish and drizzle the cranberries and bacon bits sauce over the brussel sprouts. Toss and serve immediately.

Nana's Reinvented Scalloped Potatoes

As Easter approached this 2012, I got a lot of inquiries about my blog. Mostly, why I had not posted in a while. Quite frankly, live got in the way. Work, my husband's illness, family, dogs and puppies but mostly and undesire to just sit down and enter the recipies. I knew my blog would be a huge undertaking but I really thought I could do a recipe a day!!!! LOLOLOLOL I would like to be more realistic and get maybe one a week for the remainder of the year. So let me start with this one!

Our Nana loved scalloped potatoes. Unfortunately, hers were always a bit dry. I took her recipe and added a lot more liquid to make this a triump this past Easter 2012.

Nana & Daba cerca 1940

Nana's Reinvented Scalloped Potatoes:
 6 cups of thinly sliced potatoes
1/2 cup chopped/minced onion (dice finely with chopped)
1 stick of butter
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/4 cup of flour
6 cups of milk

Peel almost 5 lbs of idaho potatoes (minus 2). Using a mandalyn or knife, slice potatoes almost paper thin. Place in a bowl and cover with water until you are ready to assemble the dish. Drain and pat before assemly.

In a large saucepan melt butter on low heat and add finely minced onion (dried minced onion will work too but you need to hydrated them, so add 1/2 more milk to the mixture.) Stir in the salt, pepper and then the flour to make a roux. Add milk to saucepan. Bring to a boil and then simmer until ready to prepare dish.

Grease a 9" x 13" baking dish. Pour an ample laddle of cream mixture on the bottom of the dish. Now take the sliced, drained potatoes and layer them across the entire bottom of the baking dish on top of the cream mixture. Pour another 2 laddles on top of that. Repeat the potatoes and cream mixture until all is used.

Bake at 350*, uncovered for about 60-70 minutes. Potatoes should be tender and top bubbly and lightly browned. Serve immediately. If you need to wait to serve, cover in foil completely (top and bottom) and then cover in a heavy towel to maintain the heat. This can perserve it for about 3hrs.

Serve with ham or any other meat and vegetable dish.

Carol's Autumn Soup



Memo and I at the farm in 1973. Memo was about 20 months.

I got this recipe from my mom about 30 years ago! It is SO upstate New York! They lived in Barker, NY from 1972 - 1984. Dad was the Superintendent of the Barker School District and mom got her teaching degree at Niagara University and became a school teacher at a nearby district. Terri and Julie graduated from Barker Central School District. My son, Memo LOVED going to see Nana and Popie! He loved riding on the tractor with Popie. Playing basketball with Stephen. And swimming with Nana. It was a great place for the kids and me to go vacation!

It was hard work too! I was always tasked with weeding the garden while there! They would plant a huge vegetable garden on the side of the house and then at the end of the summer - the harvesting began. Mom would can vegetables and fruits. They also boxed and froze vegetables, strawberries and whatever they could. For a time they would even raise their own cattle and have that meat as well. My mom....pioneer woman!!

Carol's Autumn Soup

1tbsp vegetable oil

1lb ground beef - browned in 1/2 inch chunks

2 onions finely chopped

6 carrots - diced or a lg bag baby carrots diced

8 potatoes diced - peeled or unpeeled skin (I prefer peeled)

4 stalks celery
1/2 cabage shredded

2 8oz cans stewed tomatoes

4 cups water

3 beef bouillon cubes or 2 tbsp beef stock paste or 3 cans beef stock (omit water)

2 bay leaves

1tsp salt

2tsp pepper

In a large stock pot, add oil and crumble ground beef into the pot. Brown for about 5 mins. Drain off excessive oil. Then add the onion, carrots, celery and saute about 1 minute. Add stock or water with beef cubes or paste, bay leaves, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Add cans of stewed tomatoes bring to boil again. Cook for about 10 minutes. Lastly, add the potatoes. Turn down the soup to low heat and cook about 2 hours. Serve hot with homemade wheat bread! OK buy hot french bread from the store!!! LOL

Crock pot method! Add oil and crumble ground beef into a frying pan. Brown for about 5 mins. Add the onion, carrots, celery and saute about 1 minute. Pour this entire mixture into crock pot. Add stock or water with beef cubes or paste, stewed tomatoes, bay leaves, salt and pepper stir and cook high heat for about 20 minutes. Lastly, add the potatoes. Turn down the soup to low heat and cook about 6 hours.

Autumn's Here! Carol's Apple Crisp



Me with Memo - 6 weeks old and Stephen on the shore of
Lake Ontario, NY

After living most of their lives in and about the New York metropolitan area, my dad took a job as Superintendent of Schools in Barker, NY. It is up along the fruit belt of New York south of Lake Ontario and between Buffalo and Rochester.....very cold country! They bought a farm and became part time farmers. They rented the land for cattle grazing. Got fresh milk from the farm down the street. Picked apples, pears, peaches and other fruits from local groves. And created a huge garden they tended to ...so did we if we were around!

Memo was 1 1/2 years old the first time he visited the farm. He loved Popie's tractor and watching the cows. Liz arrived at 5 weeks to visit the farm. We spend one Christmas there and got hit with about 4 ft of snow. The kids first time being in snow!

During that visit, I remember putting our clothes in a drawer in my old dresser upon arrival. One evening I went to grab something out of the drawer and a mouse surprised me!!! I screamed and shut the drawer. My brother, Stephen grabbed the drawer and took it downstairs and out the back door and dumped the contents of the drawer onto the open back porch. The mouse took off and ran around the side of the porch and into a crack under the basement door! That mouse was no dummy! He was not going to be outside in 10* below zero and 4 ft of snow. I put my things back into my suitcase and zipped it up from then on!



The farmhouse in Barker, NY



Carol's Apple Crisp:

Peel 6 apples - preferably Macintosh, Granny's or Braeburn - dice

1 cup flour

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 tsp salt

1 egg

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup sugar & 1 tsp cinnamon

Peel and dice the apples and place in a greased casserole dish. Mix together the flour, brown sugar, salt, egg and cinnamon. Sprinkle the mixture over the apples. Melt the butter and pour over the entire mixture. Then sprinkle with sugar/cinnamon mixture over entire casserole dish.

Bake 350* for 1 hour.

Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream or both!!



Popie on the tractor moving piles of snow!



Stephanie's Zucchini Bread - tis the season!



Memo and Liz - photo taken while living in
N. Tonawanda, NY in 1982. Memo was 9 years
old and Liz was 5 years old.



I lived in Mexico 10 years, 8 years in Mexico City and 2 years in Monterrey, Mexico. After about the third peso/dollar devaluation. We decided we would NEVER be able to buy a home or afford to live the way we wanted to. So Jorge, Memo, Liz, two dogs and I moved to New York. We drove a U-Haul cross country and stayed with my parents for about 5 weeks. Jorge had been offered a job with a business consultant doing the computer installations in school districts and municipalities for his company. He office was in the Buffalo area so rented a large colonial in North Tonawanda, NY. 

Almost immediately, Jorge started traveling when the company won a large contract with Sullivan County and then an even larger one in Bellport School District on Long Island, NY. During the time of his travel, I depended on neighbors for help with the kids. I was substitute teaching at the time. Joan Reilly was the neighbor to our right and had 6 kids!  

Joan was very family oriented and with 6 kids on a tight budget, she cooked a lot! One day she invited me over and offered me a taste of her zucchini bread. It was delicious! I asked her for the recipe and she gave it to me but I have somehow lost it! The difference between her zucchini bread and most others is that she uses crushed pineapple! So after much experimentation, I discover my recipe using zucchini and crushed pineapple that cooks well and taste delicious!!

Zucchini Bread: (This recipe makes 2 loaves to share or freeze one!)

3 cups shredded zucchini - leave the skin on but wash

3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2 cups sugar

1 16oz can of crushed pineapple

3 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1 cup raisins

Mix all the wet ingredients together then mix the dry ingredients and slowly hand mix them together adding the dry into the wet. Do not use a mixer as it disintegrates the zucchini, pineapple and raisins.

Grease 2 loaf pans - you could use a large 9" by 13" rectangular cake sheet and cut into squares.

Cook at 350* for 50-60 minutes. For high altitude add 1/4 more flour. For convection oven, cook only about 40-45 minutes.