Mom's Recipe Book: Play Dough

It's been a long time since I've done an entry in the Mom's Recipe Book series!

This isn't from the book of recipes my mom gave me for my wedding, though. This time, it's from an older book--a collection of recipes put out by my mom's side of the family to celebrate her grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary in 1983.



The book is chock-full of tried and true recipes, with chapters for everything from "Appetizers and Beverages" to "Cookies and Candy." But my favorite chapter is the last one: "Miscellaneous." It has recipes like this one...



...plus "recipes" from kids including a very young C. Beth.


Subtitle: Disgusting Bread in Five Minutes a Day

I like to dig out this cookbook to make something that brings me back to childhood, with its smell, warmth, and texture--play dough! Here's my mom's recipe:



Yesterday my friend Ann and her kids were here to play, so Chickie, Zoodle, and their friend Coqui all helped me mix the ingredients. I stirred them on the stove to make the smooth dough.

I like to wait to put in food coloring until the play dough is cooked, so that we can break it apart and make multiple colors. I used concentrated icing color, which is so vibrant. I started to mix it in; then I let the kids finish the kneading (with a little help!)



Enjoy making your own play dough! (But please...stay away from my bread recipe.)

Mom's Recipe Book: Heath Bar Pie

Time for a dessert I grew up with.  It's easy...and awesome.  (To see the history of Mom's Recipe Book, and other entries in the series, click here.)

Heath Bar Pie

Ingredients:

2 prepared chocolate crusts (sold with graham cracker crusts)

6 frozen Heath bars, or 1/2 package Heath English Toffee Bits (sold with chocolate chips)

1/2 gallon vanilla ice cream

Instructions:

If using Heath bars, crush them.  Soften ice cream and mix with candy.  Put in crusts and let stand in freezer several hours or overnight.  Top with Chocolate Sauce (recipe below)--or use storebought sauce.

Chocolate Sauce

Ingredients:

1/2 stick butter or margarine

1 cup powdered sugar

1 small can evaporated milk

1 cup chocolate chips (milk chocolate or semi-sweet, depending what flavor you want)

2 tsp. vanilla

Instructions:

Melt butter and chocolate chips in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat.  Add sugar and milk.  Cook about eight minutes until thickened.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

Mom's Recipe Book: Microwave Scalloped Potatoes

Mmm...another entry from Mom's Recipe Book!  To see the history of the book and other entries in the series, click here.

Microwave Scalloped Potatoes

Ingredients:

3 Tbsp. butter

3 Tbsp. flour

1 1/2 cups milk

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

3 c. sliced potatoes

1 small onion, sliced thin

Grated cheese (optional)

1.  Melt butter in microwave, at full power, in medium-sized bowl.  Stir in flour.

2. In a separate container, heat milk, uncovered, at 50% power, for 2 minutes.  Stir milk into flour mixture until smooth.  Add salt and pepper.

3.  Cook, uncovered, at 50% power, for 5-6 minutes or until mixture boils and thickens.  Stir twice during cooking time.

4.  In 2-quart microwavable casserole, combine potatoes, onions, and white sauce.  Cover with waxed paper.  Cook at full power 9 minutes.  Stir.

5.  Cover and cook at full power for 9-10 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

Optional:  Near end of cooking time, stir grated cheese into potatoes to taste, and/or sprinkle cheese on top.

(Note this is an older recipe, and with the high wattages of many newer microwaves, you may need to reduce cook times.)

Mom's Recipe Book: Indian Fry Bread & Navajo Tacos

To see the history of "Mom's Recipe Book" as well as other entries in this series, click here.

Have you ever had Indian Fry Bread? It's similar to a sopapilla and and oh-so-good. A Native American woman taught my mom to make it years ago. I haven't made it in years--I think I'll have to remedy that soon!

Please note that while my mom is an excellent cook of healthy dishes, this is not one of her low-fat items!  Also, I halved this recipe because it was so huge, so the flour and water measurements are kinda weird.  There's no easy way to measure out HALF of 6 3/4 cups!

Indian Fry Bread

Ingredients:
3 1/4 cups plus 2 Tbsp flour
2 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 cups plus 2 Tbsp warm water

Instructions:
Knead into a very soft, somewhat sticky dough. Let it rest 10-15 minutes, covered.

Knead edges of dough under, and let it rest another few minutes.  Pinch off into 6 balls, and roll into circles.

Cut into triangles (or keep in circles if using for Navajo Tacos), and deep fry.

Eat as a side dish, as part of Navajo Tacos (see below), or as a dessert (drizzled with honey.)

Navajo Tacos

Ingredients:

Indian Fry Bread, circular

Refried beans

Taco meat

Lettuce

Tomato

Green onion

Cheese

Avocado

Sour cream

Taco sauce

Spread refried beans on fry bread, and top with any combination of the ingredients listed, or anything else that sounds good to you.

I just ate, and I somehow feel a little hungry again....

Edited--I made fry bread later on in the day, after posting, and I used 2 cups white flour, the rest whole wheat flour.  It turned out great.  I woudn't call it healthy, but at least the whole wheat flour adds a little nutritional value.

Mom's Recipe Book: Garlic Lime Chicken

One more entry into Mom's Recipe Book, and tomorrow we'll be back to our regularly unscheduled programming. (But you can look forward to frequent further forays into the goodness of Mom's cooking!)

From the "Chicken & Fish" section...

Garlic Lime Chicken
Ingredients:
1/3 c soy sauce
1/4 c lime juice
1 T Worcestershire sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. dry mustard
Pepper, to taste
4 to 6 boneless, skinless chicken breast fillets

Instructions:
Mix first five ingredients, and marinate chicken at least 30 minutes. Remove from marinade, and sprinkle with pepper.

Cook on grill or in a skillet coated with cooking spray over medium heat. Turn halfway through, and cook to an internal temperature of 170 degrees.

Mom's Recipe Book: Teriyaki Marinade

I have a wonderful recipe book. It's hand-written by my mom, who gave it to me when I got married. It contains dozens of the recipes I grew up with. In this new series, I'll share some of those recipes with you. My mom's a great cook, so when you occasionally see "Mom's Recipe Book" posts, be sure to check them out! (Mom collects recipes from a lot of places. I don't know the original sources for most of these recipes.)

The first section in the book is "Beef and Pork," and it includes a recipe for teriyaki marinade. It's an easy, tasty alternative to the bottled stuff.

Teriyaki Marinade for Meat
Ingredients:
2/3 c soy sauce
1/4 c wine vinegar
2 T sugar
1 t ginger
1 clove garlic, minced

Instructions:
Combine. Marinate meat minimum 30 minutes, up to overnight. Broil or grill

Store extra marinade in a bottle in the refrigerator.