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Hearty Garden Chili Recipe

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  Recipes for chili can vary greatly from one family to the next. Our neighborhood’s annual chili party is always fun with all the variety and  sampling from as many pots as we can! Personally I have two recipes that my family absolutely loves; a fabulous white chicken chili, and the red Hearty Garden Chili in this post. This particular chili is very chunky and filling, with beans, lots of ground beef, vegetables, and overall substance. It is wonderfully flavorful and nutritious, and spicy too (about medium), although the heat can easily be adjusted or omitted. Since I have a vegetable garden during the summer, I’ve been able to use my own homegrown tomatoes and peppers for this recipe. But if you don’t have access to homegrown tomatoes, you can use store-bought canned tomatoes as well. Though I have made some changes and added extra ingredients to personalize and create my own family recipe, the original recipe was shared with me by my sister-in-law. Thank you, Kelly!!! We both have made some changes over the years, and Kelly too, has started adding her own, homegrown tomatoes. We both agree it adds so much flavor! It really is hard not to have a second helping of this awesome stuff! Toward the bottom of this post you’ll first find the recipe with standard American measurements, then with metric measurements. If you try this recipe, please consider leaving a comment and star rating […] Read more »

Norwegian Risgrøt, Rice Porridge, Pressure Cooker Recipe

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Norwegian rice porridge, or risengrynsgrøt, is a thick, creamy, hot rice cereal commonly made in Norway throughout the year, especially as a Saturday lunch. Also called risgrøt, the standard way of cooking the white rice is in a heavy pot on the stove top as shown in my post Traditional Norwegian Risgrøt, Rice Porridge Recipe. The rice cooks in milk for an hour until it thickens and softens, and needs to be stirred every five minutes or so to prevent burning. It is a little bit of a process, so it is nice to have some additional preparation options. After having experimented with a lot of batches, I have figured out several good alternatives. In this post I will show you how to make it in an electric pressure cooker, and in a previous post you can see how to prepare it using one of the following methods: Oven, quilt, cooler, or slow cooker method. Although common year-round, risgrøt is often served for lunch on Christmas Eve day, with the leftovers used in the evening for the much loved Norwegian Christmas dessert, Riskrem (rice pudding). For many families, mine included, there is no Christmas without riskrem!! We have an Instant Pot electric pressure cooker, but I’m sure other electric pressure cookers will be similar. The important part is that it needs to have a “warm” feature if you want to cook the porridge directly inside the pot. When preparing risengrynsgrøt in a pressure cooker, you […] Read more »

Norwegian Risengrynsgrøt 6 Ways; Rice Porridge Recipe

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Norwegian rice porridge, or risengrynsgrøt, is a thick, creamy, hot rice cereal commonly made in Norway throughout the year, especially as a Saturday lunch. Also called risgrøt, the standard way of cooking the white rice is in a heavy pot on the stove top, as described in my post Traditional Norwegian Risgrøt, Rice Porridge Recipe. The rice cooks in milk for an hour until it thickens and softens, and needs to be stirred every five minutes or so to prevent burning. It is a little bit of a process, so it is nice to have some additional preparation options. After having experimented with a lot of batches, I am now ready to show you several alternatives. Most of them require that you start by simmering the rice in water, then add milk and heat up again. Then you can finish it using one of the following methods: Oven, quilt, cooler, slow cooker, or electric pressure cooker method. The recipe itself is found at the bottom of this post, in which I chose to follow the oven method. But you can use the same measurements for any of the other methods described in this post. To keep this post from getting too long, I decided to post a separate post on the electric pressure cooker method (click this link.) If you decide to try my recipe, I would be thrilled if you left me a comment and star rating at the bottom of […] Read more »

Traditional Norwegian Fårikål, Lamb & Cabbage Recipe

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Fårikål, or Lamb & Cabbage, is an old, traditional Norwegian dish loved by young and old in Norway. It is often on the menu in the fall when lamb is in season and very inexpensive. Lamb meat is a favorite among many Norwegians, and simmering with cabbage is one of the most popular ways to prepare it. This authentic recipe is very easy to make, and even cheap, tough cuts become tender and juicy when fixed this way. Traditionally, this dish is served with boiled potatoes and plenty of lamb broth ladled overtop. Fårikål recipes throughout the country are usually very much the same, using only five ingredients: lamb, cabbage, salt, pepper, and water. Some people add a little bit of flour to thicken the broth just a tad. A simple combination, yet so very tasty! Norwegians abroad will sometimes make changes to traditional recipes, but in this post I will show you how to make the original, authentic Norwegian Fårikål. Directly translated, fårikål (får-i-kål) means “lamb in cabbage”. Får is another word for lamb or sheep, and kål simply means cabbage. We Norwegians are very proud of the quality of lamb meat produced in our country; sheep and their lambs usually graze in the mountains all summer long where they enjoy fresh air, lots of space to roam, clean mountain water, and an all-you-can-eat buffet of natural feed. Drivers must always keep an eye out when up in the mountains and […] Read more »

Authentic Norwegian Meatballs / Kjøttkaker Recipe

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As a native born-and-raised Norwegian, I grew up making and eating traditional Norwegian food. My mother taught me how to cook from I was just a wee little girl as I watched and stirred the pot with her. What a blessing to have had such a loving mother to teach me valuable life skills! One of the dishes frequently served as a mid-week dinner in Norway is “kjøttkaker”, Norwegian meatballs. When searching online, many English-written recipes for Norwegian meatballs seemed to me to be a bit different from your typical Norwegian kjøttkake recipe.  There may be some regional differences in Norway and of course every person will do things their own way. But the recipe I’m about to share, however, is a typical old fashioned meatball recipe from Norway, a recipe as genuine and authentic as they get! Traditional Norwegian kjøttkaker are all-beef, flavorful, and somewhat salty. Although Americans typically serve meatballs with BBQ or marinara sauce, Norwegian meatballs are served with brown gravy. Some Norwegians like to add a little bit of ginger to their meatball dough, and others will add chopped, raw onions. So you’ll find slight variations in these recipes but in the end they are all very similar to each other, and native Norwegians know what. If you decide to try this recipe, I would absolutely love a comment with a star rating as it really helps me out! Thanks in advance! How to make traditional […] Read more »

Delicious Cherry Lemonade for a Crowd. Recipe & Tips

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    Best-Ever Flavored Lemonade on a Budget I recently hosted a graduation open house for over 150 people in honor of my daughter’s graduation from high school. A graduation open house is a tradition in the northern states, for you southerners who think I must be crazy! It is, actually, pretty crazy but a lot of fun, too! At any rate, when deciding on a menu, we looked at different options for beverages. The goal was to serve something easy and good tasting, but affordable at the same time. In the end we decided on water bottles and lemonade in dispensers. But not just any bland lemonade: I figured out a way to cut back on cost while serving a wonderful cherry flavored lemonade that not only looked beautiful, but also tasted absolutely delicious! It also ended up being very easy, even for such a large crowd of people, and yet so tasty! Using the following recipe also allows you to choose other flavors, although cherry is our favorite. Read on and you will see just how simple it can be to score big without breaking the bank, in addition to several good tips!   Other ideas that were considered:  We had looked at other beverage options as well. The easiest would have been soda cans and water bottles in a kids’ plastic pool filled with ice. But after we heard people say to provide 2-3 drinks per person (really??? That can’t be […] Read more »

Super Chewy Crinkly Sugar Cookies, Recipe

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    Recently I have been baking sugar cookies, and now I want to share my two favorite recipes! I have tasted many different sugar cookies over the years but I find most of them to be bland and dry. The two recipes I’m sharing with you today, however, are among the best ones out there as far as I’m concerned! Sugar cookies have a simplistic, sweet flavor; they are not bold by any means or they would no longer be a sugar cookie. If you want a real aroma kick you should try my Malted Milk Cookies, which are truly outstanding! Sugar cookies are more plain, but that doesn’t mean they have to be bland. Both recipes are tasty and chewy but slightly different from each other: The cookies in my other recipe has great flavor, using lots of real butter and a whole 8-ounce package of cream cheese. And the recipe in this post, while still delicious tasting, also features a wonderful, chewy consistency due to ingredients selected for just that purpose. Because I like really chewy cookies, I do love this recipe from Cook’s Illustrated, although I have made a couple of changes: I have added just a tiny bit of almond or coconut extract, depending on my mood, for extra flavor. I have also changed the order of the ingredients and made this into a one-bowl, or rather, one-pot recipe to simplify, making it a truly quick and easy […] Read more »

Tender Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies, Recipe

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  Recently I have been baking sugar cookies, and now I want to share my two favorite recipes! I have tasted many different sugar cookies over the years but I find that most of them are bland and dry. The two recipes I’m sharing with you today, however, are among the best ones out there as far as I’m concerned! Sugar cookies have a simplistic, sweet flavor; they are not bold by any means or they would no longer be a sugar cookie. If you want a real aroma kick you should try my Malted Milk Cookies, which are truly outstanding! Sugar cookies are more plain, but that doesn’t mean they have to be bland. Both recipes are tasty and chewy but slightly different from each other: The recipe in this post (below) focuses on wonderful flavor and produces a tender crumb with a cream cheese tang, while the recipe in my next blog post features a great, chewy consistency due to ingredients selected for just that purpose. The recipe in this post uses real butter and also includes a full size (8 oz) package of cream cheese, both of which account for a lot of flavor. In addition there is just a tiny bit of almond extract added, which is a flavor I normally avoid because it tends to be over powering for me, but with only 1/4 teaspoon it gives just a hint of almond flavor and it is very […] Read more »

Soft Homemade Flour Tortillas; Picture Recipe

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      Have you noticed the soft and tasty flour tortillas at nice restaurants? When compared to the mass-produced packaged ones from the supermarket, there’s a huge difference! Here’s how you can make tender, flavorful, soft flour tortillas right at home! Using butter rather than flavorless oil plus enough salt to bring out flavors, these tortillas are silky and absolutely delicious! This recipe is not hard to make, it just takes a little bit of time. It can be nice to grab a bag at the store for convenience at times, but once you’ve tasted your own homemade tortillas you know what you’re missing when you go back to store brands! If you decide to try this recipe, I would love it if you leave me a star rating and a comment at the bottom of this post as it really helps me out. Thanks in advance! Note that in the following pictures I have doubled the recipe, so it looks like a lot more than you’ll get by following the recipe as is. To Make the Dough: Start out by cutting cold butter or lard (pork fat) into flour, salt, and baking powder until only small lumps of butter remain. Butter adds a lot of flavor! I use a pastry cutter to get the job done easily.   Add hot water or milk. Stir until completely combined and a dough has formed. Adjust the flour or liquid if needed. You want a […] Read more »

Old Fashioned Meatloaf Recipe

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  It amazes me how many recipes can be found on the internet at the click of a button! You can find all kinds of fancy, fun, new and different foods to try. But there there are those times when we really just want to go back to basics and make the food that Grandma used to serve. Many of our mother’s and grandmother’s old recipes have stood the test of time and are still loved today. And that is after we discovered Pinterest and all the changes and dressing-up one can do of basic, old recipes. Today’s post features a classic meatloaf recipe just the way it was made “back in the day.” Nothing weird, just the warm goodness of a meatloaf made with love! And who could argue with that?   To prepare the meatloaf you will, of course, need ground beef. The recipe below uses one pound, but since I like to make extras once I’m at it, I tripled the recipe when I took the following pictures and used three pounds. My meat was in the freezer so I took it out that morning to thaw out in time for dinner prep. At that point you will need almost 1 1/2 hours from start to finish. When dinner time comes around, start out by combining the dry ingredients: oats, sage, salt, and pepper. You’ll also need milk, eggs, Worcestershire sauce, and mustard. Mix all of these dry and wet ingredients […] Read more »