ANN'S RECIPE BOOK 1

MAPLE BACON GELATO

2 C low fat milk

1/2 t maple extract

1/4 C real maple syrup

Pinch of salt

1/2 C dark brown sugar

5 egg yolks

3/4 C heavy cream

1/2 lb. candied bacon (recipe follows)

In a metal or glass bowl, beat egg yolks with brown sugar and maple syrup until thick and light in color, set aside. 
Combine milk and salt in a medium saucepan and bring just to scald. 
Add 1/2 C of the hot milk, whisking constantly, to egg yolk mixture. Continue to add heated milk until outside of bowl is warm. Then, add egg mixture back into saucepan, continue to whisk constantly. At this point, add the cream. Cook over low heat, stirring continually, until mixture coats back of spoon. 
Pour mixture through fine strainer to remove any particles of coagulated egg. Add extract. Refrigerate until cold, at least 2 hours (overnight brings out the best flavor.) 
Freeze in your ice cream machine according to manufacturers directions. 
When removed from machine, stir in candied bacon before curing in freezer.

Yield: 1 1/2 quarts

CANDIED BACON

1/2 pound cherrywood smoked bacon
1/2 c real Maple Syrup
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 T Saigon Cinnamon
1 t Nutmeg

 Preheat oven to 350°. Mix brown sugar and spices together very well. Cover baking sheet with non-stick foil. Place a baking rack on top of foil. Lay bacon slices across rack. (Photo #1)Depending on the size of your baking sheet, you may need to do this in batches. (Do not try and put two baking sheets in at the same time. Your bacon will not crisp.) Brush bacon on one side with maple syrup. (Photo #2) Sprinkle 1 1/2-2 t of sugar-spice mixture on one side of each slice of bacon spreading evenly. (Photo #3) Bake for 10-12 minutes on one side. (Photo #4)Flip bacon slices over and repeat process. Remove from oven and let cool. (Photo #5) Chop in small bits and add to gelato. See photo steps below:
NOTE:  If, after the 24 minutes of cooking, bacon is not crisp enough to your liking, cook a little more, but please be aware that the sugar dropped on the foil will start to smoke. The bacon is not burning. It is just the sugar that has fallen. This is why it is imperative you use non-stick foil.           
                      

     

The Work Gets Done While the Hubby's Away

     When my husband went up to his family's place near Medford, Wisconsin, for a few days I went through this house like a whirlwind. (And that's why you haven't heard from me for a while.) I have opted not to go with him anymore, for personal reasons, and this gives me a wonderful break from him and a chance to deep clean my home.
     I don't know how many of you are like me but I just cannot clean my house very well with my husband under foot. It seems as soon as I have something straightened up he's right behind me making it a mess again. Sometimes I just throw up my hands and give up! That's why I relish those days when he's gone and I can get my home in order and I can finally feel whole.

     Sometimes I feel like I'm a little OCD because I get this knot in my stomach when my house is a mess. I just want everything in its place and nice and tidy. I just want to scream when something not where it's supposed to be. You readers just don't know how much I hold back in my life and in my marriage to save my sanity. But, I NEED A CLEAN HOUSE!!! And my husband wonders why I don't sleep at night. This is why! Yes, I might be a little OCD. Well, maybe more than a little, haha! (I even color coordinate my shirts, and dresses, hang my pants separately and even iron my jeans. Don't judge me! I could be worse.)
     Yes, just like everybody I do have my faults. I have been accused of loving too much, having too many clothes, not knowing when to say no, being too giving, and of course all women go through this at a certain time of the month, being too crabby. But, I acknowledge my faults and try to do better. And as for those 10 pounds I gained when I moved up north, I'm not stressing out about them, summer is around the corner, and they will come off fast. I'll be back in a size 3 by July! My 6's can now be donated!

     I hope you all can relate to my cleaning dilemma. And I'm glad I live in a small house so I don't have that much to clean, (yea, who am I kidding!) If I had a big house I would go crazy trying to clean it. But then again, I've been told I am crazy! See you in my next blog!

     

The "Ignoring" Decibel

There comes a time after being married many years that a husband starts to tune out his wife.

Oh, it's not all the time, and it's not even most of the time. So, being the curious cat that I am I asked my husband when it was that he did not hear me when I spoke to him. And he told me, "when you get that decibel in your tone, you know the one, that high-pitched voice of yours." So now I'm calling it the "Ignoring Decibel." It's usually the one I use when I call him by all three of his names. Like when I find that he left the water running in the tub and fell asleep on the bed when I get home from church. Things like that would make me use all three of his names. But, generally, I have no complaints. I landed a not a good egg, but a fantastic egg! He is my shaker to my salt and the cream to my coffee. He's even the Super Premium gas to my Porsche Boxster, and that's saying a lot. He's what makes my world a better place. He makes it fun. People say we're an odd couple because he's 6'4" and I'm only 4'9". Makes dancing kinda hard! (And funny looking, too.) We've sure had our share of ups and downs, which is putting it mildly, but we take it all in stride, because of love. LOVE, the magic four letter word, that this world needs more of, "it's the only thing that there's just too little of," to quote Burt Bacharach. You all should listen to Jackie DeShannon sing that lovely tune from 1965. It brings a tear to my eye. And so does the love for my hubby, even when he uses the Ignoring Decibel. 

Bernie Galley's Favorite Apple Dumplings

As I promised, here is my grandmothers apple dumpling recipe. Having surgery yesterday set me back a day so I apologize for it being a day late. Here is a little tip though that I want to let you know that my grandmother didn't tell my mother and the first time she made them she didn't follow the directions quite the way she should have. When you make the syrup pour the syrup over the apple dumplings before you bake them not when you serve them. It makes a really rich nice gooey sauce. I hope you enjoy the apple dumplings and please comment below on how you like them.

Bernie Galley's Favorite Apple Dumplings

2 C Flour
4 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
6 Tablespoons Sugar
1/3 Cup Shortening
2/3 Cup Milk
4-5 Cups peeled, cored and sliced apples with 1/2 to 1 Cup Sugar and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon added (add sugar depending on tartness of apples.)
SYRUP --
1 1/2 Cups Sugar
2 Cups Water
1/3 Cup Butter

Preheat oven to 350°. Mix first 5 ingredients together and work like pastry dough. Add milk and divide into 12 balls. Roll each into approximately a 5 inch circle and fill with 2 to 3 tablespoons of apple filling. Bring up sides, seal and place seam side down in an 11 1/2" by 7" pan. After pan is full, make syrup. Bring sugar and water to a full boil. Boil a full 5 minutes. Then add the butter, off the heat, stirring to melt. In order to prevent burns and spills, first put dumplings on oven rack and THEN pour syrup over, very gently. Some dumplings will break. They will bake evenly in the oven. Bake for 25-35 min. or till golden brown. Serve with ice cream, whipped cream, (or by itself is great, too!)

The Jack of Many Trades

I have been told that I know how to do a lot of things quite well, not to toot my own horn, but, I went to school a lot, to learn different things. And of course, I had a set of great parents, who taught me well, also. Things you cannot learn by education, like morality, fortitude, respect and independence. My dad was a great artist. I wish I had more than one of his precious paintings. They mean the world to me. He was also a deputy sheriff, and retired as one. He was a police sketch artist and boy, was he ever good! The sketch looked to much liked the criminal it was uncanny! He also was a coach and earned his degree all while working.
My mom taught me many things, too. She sat me up on the counter at a very early age to help her with pie. I remember, because we got to roll the pie dough out into little swirls with cinnamon and sugar when we were done. It was Heaven! That's where I got my love of cooking from. And it just continued to grow.
My mom also taught me how to sew, crochet and knit. "These are things a woman must know in order to keep house," I remember her telling me. "You always have to keep things in good repair," she'd say. I can remember her sitting there darning a bag of my dad's socks one night. How she did it with those long fingernails I'll never know! But she always had nice nails, my mom, never polished, always clear. Except, I remember she had a bottle of real red polish, years back, but I never saw her wear it. This was back in the 60's.
I've come to learn some things on my own. I went to college and to nail tech school, learned massage therapy, culinary school and became a chef. I'm also an editor for Facebook, and that keeps me really busy. You can't imagine the people I run into that give me a hard time. I also teach high school religion classes on Wednesday nights at my church and sing in the choir. All in all, I guess you sure can call me a Jack (or Jill) of many trades.

One of My Dad's Favorite Desserts

Upon going through some of my mom's old recipes  I ran across my dad's favorite desserts. I must say though my dad had a penchant for sweets.  He was a pie man, "Pies of any kind," he'd say, "as long as it's not a shepherd's pie." But fruit pies where his favorite, I must say. And at the holidays he loved his pecan and mincemeat. But when I was little, I thought mincemeat pie was the grossest thing on the face of the Earth. My dad did turn me around as I grew older and I started making them for him when I actually realized what was in the mincemeat pie. 

No pie I was ever complete without that ever-present scoop of ice cream. Be it vanilla or butter pecan my dad preferred either and sometimes got both. My dad was a simple man and was born during the Depression. He didn't expect much and was used to making do with what he had. So a simple dish of ice cream was a treat for him. His favorite all-time dessert was my grandmother's apple dumplings. We made those apple dumplings for him for his birthday and every other occasion that we could think of to celebrate anything for him. They are unlike any apple dumplings ever imagined and no recipe ever is like them anywhere. I have included it here in my blog. Please let me know what you think of it. It is my grandmother Pauline Frances Galley's recipe. And if I'm not mistaken, she got it from her mother, Essa Mae Morris. All I ask if you reprint the recipe, you give credit where credit is due. Thank you. Ann