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Two Poppy Seed Cake Recipes

One Homemade, One That Starts with a Cake Mix, Both From My Family's Cookbook of Favorite Family Recipes The first recipe is for a homemade poppy seed cake with stripes of chocolate-cinnamon streusel. (It's the streusel which really makes it special.) The second recipe starts with a cake mix to make a moist and lemony poppy seed cake. (The cake-mix cake is so easy, kids can definitely help pull it together!) Both recipes are keepers! ~ Skip Straight to the Recipes ~ ~ Homemade Poppy Seed Cake ~ ~ Easy Lemon Poppy Seed Cake ~ COMPLIMENTS! "... more than delicious." ~ Sara "... the closest to my grandmother's recipe that I have found in 30 years!" ~ Anonymous What Does "Scratch" Mean? A "scratch golfer" shoots par or better then jots quick notes onto a "scratch pad". To "scratch the surface" is just the beginning while "scratching a plan" brings one to an end. To "raise so

Asparagus Whole Wheat Bread Pudding

A savory bread pudding made with whole wheat bread and a creamy custard. It's slightly rustic and studded with spears of asparagus, bites of mushroom and just the right amount of melting cheese (not too much, not too stingy), then brightened with fresh herbs and lemon zest. It's an easy choice for a Mother's Day brunch menu or a weeknight spring supper. Bread puddings can be heavy and dense, not this one! Savory Bread Pudding, Made from Scratch. Real Food, Fresh & Inventive. Versatile Timing, Make Ahead or Just Before Baking. Budget Friendly. Weeknight Easy, Holiday Special. Assemble in Advance for an Easy Weeknight Supper. Potluck & Party Friendly. Vegetarian But High Protein. Rave Reviews.

Mom's Everyday Oatmeal Cookies

A basic recipe for oatmeal cookies, a great way to empty the pantry of leftover nuts and dried fruit, thus never the same twice! The day we lost my mother, my friend Ann asked, “What can I do?” Almost by instinct, I answered, “Come over. Bake cookies.” I knew the one recipe that might bring some comfort to my dad and sister and me – Mom’s oatmeal cookie recipe, the one she kept in her head and made again and again. In our family cookbook, she wrote, “This is the only cookie I make but they always turn out a little different. These are the cookies that cause the grandchildren to call Grandfather a ‘cookie monster’.” The next morning, Ann and her three-year old daughter moved into my kitchen, figuring out the flour bin and how to set an unfamiliar oven. Shortly, the house filled with life again – the kitchen busy-ness, the laughter of a child, the aroma of just-baked oatmeal cookies, all warm and cinnamon-y. What a gift, those cookies, never to be forgotten. I remembered t

Mom's Roast Chicken With All the Trimmings

My mother's recipe for roast chicken with all the trimmings (stuffing! chicken gravy!), first published in Kitchen Parade in 1965 - in print, naturally. It belongs to a special collection of Mom's recipes, Kitchen Parade by Shirley published to celebrate Kitchen Parade's 50th anniversary. ~ Skip Straight to the Recipe ~ In Mom's Own Words “A roast chicken with all the trimmings rates high on the list of everybody’s favorite meals. So many of the younger homemakers are afraid to roast a chicken. It sounds so complicated and so much fuss. It really isn’t. The secret is to have a stuffing recipe that everyone likes so that preparation time is cut to the minimum. This may not be so easy. Some times two adults have completely different ideas of good poultry stuffing. It took me seven years to achieve one that my husband and I like. Maybe you’ll like it too.” ~ Kitchen Parade, circa 1965 Sunday Dinners Across the Years In my mother’s childhood, Sunday dinn