Back to School Memories

Around back to school time each fall, I often recall how I ended up getting "Googley-eyed Ann" AKA "Googs." Many Raggedy lovers out there know that Johnny Gruelle's daughter Marcella died because of complications from a tainted vaccination she received from her school. It was after her death, that Mr. Gruelle began to pen down and illustrate the stories he told his late daughter about an old family rag doll. These stories are what led Mr. Gruelle to become a household name. 
In our household, "Googs" is among the favorite of favorite Raggedys. It took a tainted vaccination for me to adopt her. For about five years of my childhood, my family lived in Central Illinois. My mom was not pleased with her girls having to be seen by a family doctor, instead of a pediatrician. So every summer, we trekked back to Ohio to get our yearly physicals from the group of pediatricians who had seen us literally since the day we were born. There must have been a discrepancy between school immunization requirements in Ohio and Illinois because I ended up needing a "shot" right before school started. On the way to the doctor's office, we stopped at a craft bazaar at a local church. There I fell in love with a certain "googley-eyed" Raggedy Ann. My begging didn't work and I left empty-handed.  "Back in the day," one received injections in the bottom. I was none to pleased about this and neither was my mother when I woke up complaining of a sore rear end. As the day progressed, my bottom side grew more sore and red plus I developed a high fever. My mom took me back to the doctor and I was placed on antibiotics with the classic warning that if I wasn't fever free for 24 hours, I would be unable to start school. This broke my little heart!  
I had quite the surprise when we left the doctor's office. My mom turned into the church parking lot where the craft bazaar was being held. After a quick dash inside, she came back with a certain Ann and declared "You need something to smile about!" Ann was my dear friend as I recovered that long weekend. She did indeed bring me smiles because I had to spend a lot of time on my tummy with ice packs on my bottom. I also credit Anne that I made it to the first day of school. 
At fifteen inches, Googly-Eyed Ann was just the right size to love and be loved by. She fit into traditional baby doll clothes so I always had fun looking for items at garage sales. Interestingly, she came with another red-paisley dress. The green dress she is wearing now was one of those "fine finds." Several years back, Mom found her "real dress" and gave it to me. It is Somewhere.
When we got married, Mark declared "Googly-eyed Ann" to be a "mouthful" and gave her the nickname "Googs." It has stuck with her so well that our son has often had to be reminded which Raggedy is "Googly-eyed Ann."

The VERY BEST White Bread

A Great Grape Salad

I was asked for this recipe this morning and thought I would share it with you while I had it out. One of the true advantages of being a pastor's family is all the great potlucks you get to attend. I've tasted some great dishes over the years and collected some super recipes. RS's grape salad is near the top of the list. It is just so unique and tasty! I hope you enjoy it, too!

8 cups red grapes - about 1/2 pound
8 oz sour cream
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup regular sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 brown sugar

With a hand mixer, combine the sour cream, cream cheese, and sugar. Beginning with the grapes, alternate layers of grapes and cream cheese mixture. Top with pecans and brown sugar. 

Mommy and Me Raggedy Road Trip

This past Monday was Andy's last day of Summer Vacation. We did A LOT of traveling this summer - no less than four road trips! "Mr. Andrew" decided the Raggedys (and a few other 'toons) needed a small road trip of their own. We needed a few items for Brainy Breakfasts (see http://askdrsears.com/html/4/T040400.asp#T040401) so Trader Joe's became our destination, with a side trip to Penzey's Spices. Our closest Trader Joe's is about 45 minutes away in Woodmere. (Please don't feel too bad for us. This same location is the closest one to my sister in Buffalo, NY!) The front passenger's seat was also filled with Raggedys so you can bet it was a fun trip there and back. Andy picked two non-raggedy 'toons to go into the stores with us. Gravel (a friend of Grover) was even invited back by the Penzey's clerk! What a great end to a wonderful summer! (Look for details about Matzke Brainy Breakfasts and my love affair with Penzey's in the future!)

Peanut Butter-Honey Bread

Peanut Butter-Honey Bread
(1 1/2 pound loaf)

1/2 cup - 4 oz milk
1/4 cup - 2 oz water
1/4 cup - 2 3/8 oz peanut butter
1 egg
3 T. - 2 1/4 oz honey
3 cups - 12 3/4  bread flour
3/4 tsp. salt
1 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast

Add ingredients in order of your bread machine's instructions. (The above is written in order for a Zo.) Select basic white bread cycle. 

Excellent toasted with jelly.
Andy enjoys it as a PBPB&J sandwich for school lunches. 

Weigh or Pay!

I turned out that the folks at Cook's Illustrated HAD been in my brain. 
Over the six months or so, I bought copies of Cook's Illustrated  in bookstores. Each bi-monthly issue was more fascinating than the next. AND THEN I READ IT- the article on measuring flour! It warned against the dangers of spooning flour onto a measuring cup and then leveling it off. One could end up with 20% less flour! Their first recommendation was to weigh flour. The dip-and-sweep method was deemed the next reliable. AT&T rejoiced that day when I called my mom at "peak time" to share with her the wonderful news! 
For about the next ten years, I faithfully used a spring scale. I found it handy not only for baking but for measuring out ingredients I bought in bulk. I knew spring scales were less reliable than digital scales so I was delighted to find an inexpensive digital one at IKEA. That scale DROVE ME CRAZY because of quirky quarter-ounce increments. I owned it during my sleep-deprived days as a young mom. I did NOT need anything requiring extra brain power.
One of the very first tweets I received from Christopher Kimball (the editor of Cook's Illustrated/my superhero) was a positive review the OXO digital scale. The price almost matched a Bed, Bath, and Beyond gift card I had so I purchased it the next day. That baby is my friend. I lovingly refer to it as "the one kitchen gadget you didn't realize you needed until you have it." I use it almost every day. I started bread baking last winter and it's tare feature is so handy. I can put my bread machine pan/mixing bowl on the scale and tare it after each ingredient I add. This is what I did NOT do on Monday. Unlike King Arthur Flour and ATK Baking Cookbook, my Better Homes and Gardens Biggest Book of Bread Machine Recipes doesn't list the ingredients weight. I was pressed for time - I had a little boy that wanted to play Raggedy School - so I didn't convert the recipe. Bad idea. My mind was on all sorts of back to school things and I lost count of how many half cups of bread flour I had put in. Then, I got so wrapped up in Raggedy School that I forgot to check on it while it was in the Zo.  Nearly four hours passed and I ended up with the picture you see below. What a waste of good ingredients yet an interesting blog post!

Why I Weigh My Ingredients

I've loved Science my whole life. I was one of those kids who always wanted to know why and how something worked. I was blessed with a biologist turned Purchasing Director for a father and a teacher for a mother so most of my why's and how's were promptly and correctly answered. National Geographic and Smithsonian magazines sat on my bookshelf along with high school and college textbooks gleaned from book sales. Because of my love for Science and my dream to become a veterinarian, I was put on the advanced science track at my college-prep high school. Even more worlds of wonder were opened to me when I took Biology as a freshman. BUT "they" forgot to put me in advanced math. This error caught up with me first quarter of Sophomore Chemistry. I was only in Geometry I with no Trig or Calculus experience. "Fortunately" there was about a half dozen of us in the same boat and we had a kind and dear Chemistry teacher. Mr. Britten spent many a lunch period giving us crash courses in math. He did the same thing for us the next year in Physics. By then, I was barely treading H2O and decided being a teacher or librarian was a better idea than a vet.
But the why and how questions were still there, especially when I started cooking on my own. (Keep in mind this was in the pre-Food Network/Internet era.) I drove my mother crazy and made AT&T very happy with questions like "Should I bake the meat loaf for a different period of time because I have a glass loaf pan?"  I really, really drove her crazy with the "How do you correctly measure flour?" question. I tried to explain that different scoping methods could drastically alter the amount of flour because the measuring cup only measured volume, not weight. I even gave her a demonstration when I came home for a visit, showing that our scoops contained different amounts of flour. She gave me a perplexed look  and said, "Susan, all I know is every cookie and every pie I've ever baked for you was with that size scoop of flour and you ate them all!"
A few months after the "flour scooping experiment" I was visiting the big city of Indianapolis. In a bookstore in that town, I happened upon an issue of the magazine Cook's Illustrated.  I opened it up and my world was turned upside down. It seemed that there was a test kitchen in Boston filled with chefs/scientists who "experimented" on the same recipe over and over until it was just right. They did things like vary the pan type - glass or metal. Then they wrote detailed articles explaining the science behind what made the final recipe work. I couldn't get enough! Had these folks been inside my brain? The answer was "Yes!"

I dont usually make dinner on Sunday nights

For the past couple of years, I haven't cooked on Sunday evenings. Each week, we almost always have a Leftover Night. It's part of our frugal living. Given how crazy life can be in a parsonage on Sundays, today is usually the No-Cook Day in the Matzke house. With us being out-of-town earlier this week, it was pretty slim pickings tonight. I had a bag of frozen cooked shrimp I had bought to use during our pre-Gfest Asian Meal Countdown. For some reason, I didn't make that meal. Aldi had romaine lettuce on sale so the idea for Grilled Shrimp Caesar Salad was born.It was so easy that even a tired pastor's wife could throw it together in about twenty minutes. Here's how I made it:

With an immersion blender, combine:
1 T. red wine vinegar
1 T. balsamic vinegar
1 T. lemon juice
1 T. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1 tsp. anchovy paste
3 cloves of garlic

Mix for about 20 seconds. Then gradually drizzle in 3/4 cup of olive oil while blender is going. Mix until combined. (You could just use a whisk for these two steps if you don't have an immersion blender but see my Cook's Notes below.)

Preheat your grill. (It looked like it could rain so I used my stovetop grill tonight.) Place defrosted, deveined, peeled shrimp onto skewers. Then baste with Wegman's Basting Oil. (Or make your own with olive oil, garlic and your favorite herbs.) Cook shrimp for about 3 minutes a side. Meanwhile rinse and shred romaine lettuce onto plates. When shrimp are done cooking, place them on top of lettuce. Allow "the folks" to dress their own salads with their preference of dressing, salt, pepper, croutons (sorry, they weren't homemade tonight), and parmesan cheese.

Cook's Notes
*I picked up Braun my immersion blender years ago during a bargain hunting trip with my sister. Because it converts to a hand-held mixer and a mini food chopper, I considered it a deal. I use it so much that I would encourage anyone to pay full price for one. You (and your arms) won't regret it!
*Our family each has their own preference for amounts of each topping so I have them do it themselves. You could easily put all the ingredients together in a serving bowl before bringing it to the table for a much classier presentation!

The First Recipe: Why Save the Best for Last?

One of the most exciting things that has ever happened to me about cooking occurred just this past week. As a follow-up to a survey I had completed in mid-July on their Facebook page, King Arthur Flour Company asked for my Chocolate Chip Cheeseball recipe to put in their magazine "The Baking Sheet." The survey was about "unusual holiday cooking/baking traditions" so I mentioned this recipe along with my mom's "non-feathered meat" Thanksgiving dishes and French-Canadian Christmas Eve tortiere.  After I emailed them the information below, Mrs. Reid told me the Holiday issue was just about filled up but she looked forward to putting in the Valentine's Day issue! With a circulation of about 25,000, I was elated it was making it into any issue!
Here is an excerpt of the email I sent to Susan Reid, the editor of "The Baking Sheet" at King Arthur Flour:

I've been making this recipe for almost ten years at Christmas time (and whenever else my family can talk me into it.) I am a pastor's wife and I started making this recipe because of a tradition at my husband's first congregation. Each Christmas, the ladies of the church would inundated us with an overwhelming amount of baked goods. There was no way two people could ever begin to eat so many treats.  So, I served them at family holiday gatherings. As an advid home cook,  I couldn't bear to serve things only made by others but I also had no idea of the exact baked goods we would receive each year. The chocolate chip cheeseball became the perfect solution to my quandary. I am afraid it is a cardiologist's nightmare but I can't think of a way to duplicate the butter's richness. 

Chocolate Chip Cheeseball - the original version
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbsp. Brown sugar
3/4 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
3/4 cup finely chopped pecans
Graham crackers or vanilla wafers

In a small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until fluffy. Gradually add sugars. Beat until just combined. Stir in chips. Cover and refrigerate two hours. Place in plastic wrap. Shape into ball. Chill for at least an hour. Just before serving, roll ball in nuts. Serve with Graham crackers or vanilla wafers. Makes 2 cups
Cook's Notes:
*Use a stand mixer! 
*Mini chocolate chips are a must. Regular ones are too coarse for spreading.
*I often omit the vanilla. It can be a bit overpowering. 
*I also omit the pecans occasionally.  This makes it more of a kid-friendly dessert. If this is the case, I just place it in a serving bowl and let people scoop it out. When I make it just for my family, we each have our own labeled, Tupperware container. It eliminates many a squabble. 

A Few of My Favorite Things . . .

A teacher should never have favorites. Right before I left teaching in 2001, I had favorites. I kept them in my heart and tried not to let it show in the classroom. But I really did care for J.R.. and A.K. more than the others. And see, to this day, I dare not admit aloud their names. 

The good thing about collecting Raggedys and recipes is you CAN share your favorites with others. So here are my favorites:

"The Originals" - this Ann and Andy were given to me by my maternal grandmother the Christmas BEFORE I was born, nearly forty years ago. Throughout my childhood, the two of them rarely left my side. A flip though my family's photo albums will prove this -  some part of one or both of them is in nearly every candid picture snapped by my parents. Long after other girls discarded their dolls, these two dears remained my confidants for they were who I addressed my journal entries to. (And still do to this day.)  They even had the distinct honor of sitting in the front pew of our wedding. These days The Originals are spending their golden years sitting on the top shelf of the spare bedroom closet - away from harmful sunlight, kitties, and kids. 
The following cookbooks contain my favorite recipes:

The Joy of Cooking, 1975 edition. My late mother gave me a copy of JOY when I moved into my first apartment. I have to admit I would be hard-pressed to name a favorite recipe from this book. The reason why I love it so is ALL the in-depth ingredients, techniques, and substitutions it has taught me over the years. This JOY (and the '98 and '06 editions) have prevented many a kitchen disaster! 

America's Test Kitchen's Family Cookbook: this would be my "deserted island cookbook". I am a huge, huge fan of ATK (as I'm sure you will see in upcoming posts) and this book contains MANY Matzke family favorites from
their magazines and TV shows. 
Cookwise - I think Shirley Corriander and I were separated at birth (and by a few decades.) She explains all those "science of cooking" questions I wondered about in high school chemistry and physics. I love to re-read the chapter on "The Wonders of Risen Bread" almost as much as any favorite fiction book! 
Good Eats - We've been watching pre-recorded episodes of "Brown" (Andy's toddler name for A.B.) during Friday night pizza nights for almost seven years. I am a visual learner so "Brown" makes all those lessons Shirley taught me in "Cookwise" come alive. Every single time I add yeast to a batch of homemade bread, I see Good Eats sock puppets!
Recipe Keeper - contains my favorite recipes given to me by family and friends plus ones clipped from magazines over the years. After many years of haphazardly sticking them into other cookbooks, I compiled them all into this handy binder in the fall of 2009. We had just lost Mom in July of 2008 and I would be sent into a terrible panic every time I couldn't locate one of her recipe cards. I especially look forward to sharing with you its contents in upcoming posts.
(The Raggedy blanket is also a "favorite" but we'll save it's story for another post.) 

And so it begins . . .

With the advent of Mark's THIRD blog yesterday, our son suggested I start one. As soon as I said "What do I know about besides Raggedys and Recipes?!?" that an idea had been born. With the boys gone to their Kaiju Campout (some day soon I'll figure out how to link my blog to Mark's Monsterlandohio blog), I have all the time in the world. I do have to feed Theo soon (see Lifewiththeo) so I had better close this first post.