Patti Katter

Ingredients

6 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 cups sugar
6 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups apples – peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped
1-2 cup broken nuts

Directions

In bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside. In large mixing bowl, place oil, sugar, eggs, vanilla and apples. Stir into flour mixture. Add walnuts and mix. Divided mixture between four greased 8-in. x 4-in. bread pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40-45 minutes or until bread test done. Cool for 10 minutes on wire rack before removing from pan.

*Please note, this is a big batch that will make four loaves of apple bread.  You can always freeze a couple and save it for a later date, or give some out to friends. 

You read it right, this little meat dish is called Porcupines.  My kids tried guessing why they are called Porcupines, the only reason we can come up with is the rice sort of looks like porcupine quills.  You can make this with any ground meat.  I used venison this time…

Ingredients

1 pound lean ground meat
1/2 cup uncooked white rice
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon celery salt
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 cup water
Directions

In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, rice, 1/2 cup of water and onion. Blend in salt, celery salt, garlic powder and pepper. Mix well. Shape into 1 1/2 inch balls.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a large skillet over medium heat, brown the meatballs; drain fat.
In an 11×7 inch baking dish, combine the tomato sauce and 1 cup of water. Place the browned meatballs into the tomato sauce, turning to coat well.

Cover and bake in a preheated oven for 45 minutes. Uncover, and cook for an additional 15 minutes.

*You can easily double this recipe, we have a family of five and I have to double it as my teenagers are big eaters!

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cups quick cooking oats

Directions

In a medium bowl, cream together butter, white sugar, and brown sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in oats. Cover, and chill dough for at least an hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets (tip, I use paper towel with grease on it so I don’t get my hands all yucky). Roll the dough into walnut sized balls, and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Flatten each cookie with a large fork dipped in sugar.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

*Sometimes, to switch it up I add nuts – chocolate chips or raisins.  :)

Dear Diary,

I have quite a few frozen apples in my freezer from this past fall and realized I better get-a-cookin! Tonight, I doctored up an old Apple Cake recipe, changed a few things here and there… wah-lah… I came up with Pattis All American Apple Cake recipe.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease and flour pan… set it aside.

Take apples, sugar and cinnamon and set aside.

• 6-7 apples – cut/peeled and cored
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon
• 5 teaspoons sugar

Then… in a separate bowl mix:

• 3 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons baking powder

Add the following to the flour mixture:

• 1/4 cup orange juice (I use freshly squeezed, its about one orange)
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup of melted butter

Last but not least, throw in:

• 1 cup broken walnuts

Pour half of batter in cake pan (or tube pan).  The batter is thick! Add about half of the apples to the first layer of batter.  Pour remainder batter on top of first layer of apples, then top cake with the rest of the apples.  Bake at 350 degrees for aprox 40 minutes.