Old Fashioned Valentine's Day Brownies you'll LOVE

Old Fashioned Valentine's Day Brownies
These are incredibly good! Rich and chocolatey!!!

Ingredients:
1⁄2 cup butter or 1⁄2 cup margarine
1⁄4 cup cocoa
2 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
3⁄4 cup flour
1⁄2 cup walnuts (optional)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F
Melt butter in microwave.
Add the cocoa and stir.
In medium bowl beat eggs until frothy.
Add sugar, flour, salt, and vanilla (also nuts if you are using them).
Pour cocoa mixture over egg mixture and stir all together.
Put into a greased 8 x 8 pan. Preferably a heart shaped one. Bake for 30 minutes.

Old Fashioned Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients:
1 cup butter (room temperature
3 cups sugar (confectioners')
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Directions:
In a mixing bowl with electric mixer, combine the butter with confectioners' sugar. Beat on low speed until sugar is moistened, then beat on medium to high speed for about 2 minutes.
Add the vanilla and 1 tablespoon of milk or cream and beat until smooth. Beat in more milk or cream, as needed for spreading consistency. Add a few drops of red food coloring as well, to set the mood!

My Own Sweet Valentine

Like the sweetly budding rose,
Freshened by the gentle rain
Like the Evening Star that glows,
Brightest of the starry train

Like a well arranged Bouquet,
Where the fairest flowers combine,
Odours rich and colours gay,
Is my own Sweet Valentine

Old Style Texas Tornado Cake

Texas Tornado Cake

It may go by many names, but this wonderful cake with it's coconut and walnut frosting is moist, delicious, and very easy to make!
Texas tornado cake contains fruit and nuts, with coconut icing. It’s not clear when this cake was invented, or where it’s from. Some insist that “Texas tornado cake” is another name for an “earthquake cake.”

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs 3 cups fruit cocktail with liquid
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped nuts
Frosting:
1 Stick butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup evaporated milk 1 cup flaked coconut

Directions:
Cream together sugar, eggs, fruit cocktail, baking soda and flour. Pour into lightly greased and floured 13x9x2-inch cake pan. Mix brown sugar and nuts together and sprinkle onto unbaked batter in the pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 40 minutes or until golden brown on top. While still hot, poke holes into the cake to allow the frosting to seep inside. Ice cake while hot.
Frosting Directions:
Boil margarine, sugar and milk 2 minutes. Stir in coconut. Spoon over cake as soon as cake is taken from the oven. I am sure you will be enjoying this delicious cake just as much as I, and others did!

Cherry Pie Bars

Cherry Pie Bars
You can bake up a pan of these cheery Cherry Bars in just 30 minutes with staple ingredients and pie filling.

A classic cherry dessert is almost like pie. Just a couple of cans of cherry pie filling and you have a delicious, and tasty treat.

Ingredients:
For the bars:
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs 1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 (21 oz.) cans cherry pie filling For the glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 to 3 tablespoons milk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.
In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar and salt until light and fluffy.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in extracts. Gradually add flour.
Spread 3 cups dough into a greased 15x10x1-in. baking pan. Spread with pie filling.
Drop remaining dough by teaspoonfuls over filling. Bake 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.
Cool completely in pan on a wire rack.
In a small bowl, mix confectioners’ sugar, extracts and enough milk to reach desired consistency; drizzle over top.

The Best White/Chocolate Cake Ever!

An Old Fashioned, Vintage White Cake with Chocolate Frosting Recipe
Wouldn't you just love a good old white/chocolate cake just like grandma use to make right now?

Ingredients:
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar.
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter or margarine, melted.
2 tablespoons water.
2 large eggs.
2 teaspoons vanilla extract.
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour.
1/2 teaspoon baking powder.

Instructions:
PREHEAT oven to 350º F. Grease baking pan(s).
COMBINE granulated sugar, butter and water in large bowl. Stir in eggs and vanilla extract. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl; stir into sugar mixture. Stir in nuts. Spread into prepared baking pan(s).
BAKE for 18 to 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out slightly sticky. Cool completely in pan(s) on wire rack. Frost when cooled, and enjoy.

Frosting
Ingredients:
3 cups sifted powdered sugar, divided
2/3 cup baking cocoa
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened
5 to 6 tablespoons milk, divided
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions:
BEAT 1 cup powdered sugar, cocoa, butter, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract in small mixer bowl until creamy. Gradually beat in remaining sugar and milk until smooth. Makes 2 cups total.

A 1922 Recipe for Peanut Butter Bread

Vintage Peanut Butter Bread Recipe

This is a Royal Baking Powder recipe from 1922, and it is delicious. The Royal Baking Powder Company was one of the largest producers of baking powder in the US. The company was started by Joseph Christoffel Hoagland and William Ziegler in 1866.

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup peanut butter
1 cup milk

Directions:
In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In separate bowl add milk to peanut butter; stir until combined. Add dry ingredients, and blend well. Pour into a greased 8-in. x 4-in. loaf pan.
Bake at 350° for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack.

You can enjoy it all by itself, or with butter, or jelly. Anyway you choose, you are guaranteed to love it.

Delicious Spiced Applesauce Bars

Spiced Applesauce Bars
So easy you can make them anytime for that warm and cozy feeling of home. Grandma would be proud, and your family will be very happy.

Ingredients:
For the Filling:
3 cups Applesauce plus 1 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 Tbsp. all purpose flour
For the Crust:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
2 cups old fashioned oats + 1/2 cup old fashioned oats, and 1/4 cup flour (for top half of crust)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon

Instructions:
In a medium saucepan, combine the filling ingredients and cook on medium while mixing until it is thick and bubbly.
Turn off heat, and set aside to cool.
Pre heat the oven to 375 degrees.
Cream the butter and the brown sugar.
Mix in the 1 cup of flour and the 1/2 tsp. salt, then stir in the 2 cups of oats.
In a 9 x 13 baking dish, press 1/2 of this oat mixture into the bottom of the dish evenly with a wooden or plastic spoon.
Pour the cooled applesauce mixture and spread evenly on top of the crust.
Add the 1/2 cup oats, and 1/4 cup of flour to the remaining oat mixture, along with the nutmeg and cinnamon. Mix until crumbly. Break up and sprinkle the crumbles on top of the applesauce filling evenly.
Gently press down on top the applesauce.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Easy Old Fashioned Apple Bread

Don't like bananas... don't fear, there is a bread for you too!

Old Fashioned Apple Bread

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 Teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground clove
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/3 cups chopped Apples

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and salt.
In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar.
Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended.
Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten.
Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick
inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean.
Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Make an Old Fashioned Plum Pudding for Christmas

Old Fashioned Plum Pudding

Plum pudding, a Christmas pudding, has been served on Christmas day for centuries. The traditional plum pudding is served in a blaze, with a sprig of holly stuck on top. For the plum pudding sauce, a little brandy is poured over the Christmas pudding and lighted at the last moment to produce the desired effect.

Plum pudding is best when made four or five weeks prior to Christmas and can be stored for months. During the Victorian era, a silver coin was baked in the pudding, with a promise of wealth in the coming year.
Many households have their own recipe for Christmas pudding, some handed down through families for generations. Essentially the recipe brings together what traditionally were expensive or luxurious ingredients, notably the sweet spices, that are so important in developing its distinctive rich aroma, and usually made with suet.

Ingredients:
1 Cup light molasses
3/4 Cup melted butter
1/2 Cup warm milk
2 eggs, beaten
1 Cup all-purpose flour, plus more to toss fruit
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1 pint candied mixed fruit
1 Cup raisins
1 1/2 oz. brandy, plus 1 oz. for sauce
Holly sprig, for garnish
1/4 lb. butter
1 Cup sugar
1 pinch salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Prepare wet and dry ingredients
In a mixing bowl, combine the molasses with the melted butter, milk and eggs. In another, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and cloves. Add one third of the dry ingredients to the molasses mixture at a time, combining thoroughly. Add fruit and bake

Coat the candied fruit and raisins with a little flour by tossing, then add them to the batter, along with the one and a half ounces of brandy. Mix well and pour the batter into a greased, sugared steamed pudding mold. Place a rack into a large pot of water and stand the pudding mold on it. The mold should be half submerged in the water. Cover the pot and steam for 2 hours, adding more water if necessary. Prepare the hard sauce and serve

Allow the pudding to cool in the mold for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, beat together the quarter-pound of butter, the sugar, a pinch of salt, the vanilla extract and the remaining ounce of brandy. Turn out the pudding and garnish with powdered sugar and the holly sprig before serving with the hard sauce.

Old Fashioned Potato Chip Cookies

Pecan Crunch Cookies (Also known as Potato Chip Cookies)

Ingredients:
1 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup crushed potato chips
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
Directions:

Cream together butter or margarine, sugar and vanilla. Add crushed potato chips & pecans. Stir in flour. Form into small balls, using about 1 tbsp. dough for each. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Press balls flat with bottom of a tumbler dipped in sugar. Bake in moderate oven 350 degrees for 16 to 18 minutes or till cookies are lightly brown.

Photo above from The Clara Project

The Best Sweet Potato (Yam) Casserole With Marshmallows

Time for a good old fashioned Sweet Potato (Yam) Casserole With Marshmallows

Sweet potatoes are a new world tuber, although they weren’t present at the Original Thanksgiving. Native to Central and South America, they were introduced to the North via colonists from Europe. Columbus is credited was transporting them home to the Old World, and by the 16th century they appeared in a British herbal encyclopedia, which recommends serving them “roasted and infused with wine, boiled with prunes, or roasted with oil, vinegar, and salt.”

It wasn’t until after the 1740’s that the term sweet potato began to be used by American colonists to distinguish it from the white (Irish) potato.
by 1880 Americans were enjoying some sort of variation of candied sweet potatoes. American cookbooks, such as the widely published 1893 Boston Cooking School Cookbook by Fannie Farmer featured a recipe for glazed sweet potatoes. Likewise, in 1896 Texas Farm and Ranch published Sweet Potato Culture for Profit: A Full Account of the Origin,History and Botanical Characteristics of Sweet Potato, which included a recipe for glazed sweet potatoes.
Now you are probably hungry, and ready to make that Sweet Potato Casserole!
Ingredients:
1 (40 ounce) canbruce cut yams, drained
1⁄2 cup brown sugar
1⁄4 teaspoon salt
1⁄2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg, beaten
4 tablespoons melted butter
1 (16 ounce) bag miniature marshmallows *Note: I used the large marshmellows, and cut them in half.
Directions:
Butter 1 quart baking dish.
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Mash yams in a large bowl and add brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, egg, and melted butter. Mix well.
Line bottom of baking dish with 1 cp of chopped pecans.
Place 1/2 mixture in baking dish. Top with a layer of marshmallows, then add remaining mixture, and top with the remaining marshmallows.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Remove from oven and top with remaining marshmallows.
Bake for another 10 minutes or until marshmallows are lightly browned.