Marguerites Cookbook

A cooking blog all about making vintage recipes from a cookbook we inherited from our grandmother

Cream Cheese Brownies

cream cheese brownies header

I’m not sure if I’ve made it clear enough (although I think I have), but I love desserts. Chocolate desserts might be my favorite, and brownies are near the top of the list. Since its been a few weeks since our last dessert, the Southern Lane Cake, I think it’s time to do another. These cream cheese brownies were a great treat.

Cream Cheese Brownies

Here’s what Marguerite’s friend Susie Matha had to say:

cream cheese brownies recipe

Susie also gave us the Coffee Cake recipe, which is one of my favorite recipes I think we’ve done on Marguerite’s Cookbook. So when it came time to make these brownies, I was hopeful they would be as much of a success as the coffee cake. To be honest, these brownies didn’t quite live up to the coffee cake, but they were still tasty. It was fun to make brownies completely from scratch, and we enjoyed working on making each of the layers for this interesting brownie recipe.

Brownies Cream Cheese

The cream cheese brownies turned out really nice. They were soft and moist and had great flavor. Both the chocolate layers and cream cheese layers were delicious, and the two mixed together well to make a wonderful brownie. We both enjoyed these brownies, and they disappeared pretty fast. I’m sure we’ll be making these again!

Marble Brownies

Cream Cheese Brownies
Print Recipe
Prep Time
25 minutes
Cook Time
40 minutes
Prep Time
25 minutes
Cook Time
40 minutes
Cream Cheese Brownies
Print Recipe
Prep Time
25 minutes
Cook Time
40 minutes
Prep Time
25 minutes
Cook Time
40 minutes
Ingredients
Chocolate Layer
Cheese Layer
Servings:
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Melt chocolate and 3 tablespoons of butter over very low heat. Stir frequently. Cool.
  3. To make cheese layer, cream 3 ounces of cream cheese with 2 tablespoons of butter. Gradually add 1/4 cup sugar, creaming until fluffy. Blend in 1 egg, 1 tablespoon flour, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Set aside.
  4. To make chocolate layer, beat 2 eggs until lightly colored. Slowly add 3/4 cups sugar; beat until thickened. Add 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/2 cup flour.
  5. Blend in chocolate mixture, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1/4 teaspoon almond extract.
  6. Spread half the chocolate batter in a greased 8 or 9 inch square pan. Top with cheese mixture. Spoon remaining chocolate patter over top. Zigzag knife through batter to marble. Bake for 35-40 minutes.
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Southern Lane Cake

Southern Lane Cake Header

I hope everyone out there is having a good start to their new year. Some of you may be working on a resolution to eat healthier. While we are also attempting that goal, there is an important milestone that requires this week’s recipe to be a cake. It’s Marguerite’s Cookbook’s birthday! That’s right, we launched Marguerite’s Cookbook a whole year ago, and knew that we wanted to do one of Marguerite’s many cake recipes as a birthday treat to ourselves. This Southern Lane Cake turned out to be an excellent choice that was fun to make and delicious to eat.

Southern Lane Cake

Here’s what Marguerite had to say:

Southern Lane Cake Recipe

As usual, the planning for this recipe required a little more work than just reading Marguerite’s notes. I had to research how long to bake the layers for, what a cooked white frosting was (more on that later), and a little more about just what a Southern Lane Cake was. That’s where I discovered that some fillings or icings included things like nuts, which is why I decided to put some almonds on top of the cake.

Southern Lane Cake up close

As you may or may not be able to tell, there are only three layers in the final product here. I’d like to say that is on purpose, but of course I made a little mistake and was forced into the decision. We have a tiny oven in our current kitchen, and it was a struggle fitting two 8″ and two 9″ pans into it. On top of that, the two sets of pans are not the same ages and not the same shade of aluminum. In the end, one of the four layers burned while the others turned out great, so the height of our cake was decided for me. I do think a three layer cake looks great though!

Southern Lane Cake with piece

I also had some trouble in attempting to make a homemade icing, so instead I just used some plain store bought white icing. That is why there is no accompanying icing recipe to go along with the cake. As great as it can be to make something by hand, Marguerite knew the value of making it easier when she needed to, too! In my opinion, the lack of homemade icing did not take away from this cake at all!

Southern Lane Cake piece

This “blogiversary” cake was delicious. I used to not like cakes with fillings, or filling that wasn’t more icing. Now that I am older and wiser I have seen the error of my ways and am less narrow-minded towards filled cakes. The actual cake parts cooked great, and were light and moist. The combination of the cake, cherry pie filling, and icing worked very well together to make this a very enjoyable dessert. Shannon agreed that this cake was tasty, but was happy to see it go to work with me so we didn’t eat it all.

Southern Lane Cake

My favorite part of this Southern Lane Cake was putting it together and decorating it with Shannon. She took a Wilton cake decorating class before so she is the resident cake expert. Making icing walls to hold the cherry pie filling and stacking the layers on top of each other together was a lot of fun. I also love spreading icing, so I got to do that over the whole cake, too. Here’s to the first year of Marguerite’s Cookbook. Thanks for spending some time with us and with Marguerite. We had a great first year, and hope to have many more to come!

Southern Lane Cake

Southern Lane Cake
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
1 cake 25 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
20-25 minutes 1 hour
Servings Prep Time
1 cake 25 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
20-25 minutes 1 hour
Southern Lane Cake
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
1 cake 25 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
20-25 minutes 1 hour
Servings Prep Time
1 cake 25 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
20-25 minutes 1 hour
Ingredients
Servings: cake
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour 4 nine inch round layer pans.
  2. Cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla.
  3. Combine dry ingredients (flour, powder, salt). Alternately add dry ingredients and milk to creamed butter and sugar.
  4. Fold in egg whites.
  5. Bake 20-25 minutes.
  6. Let layers cool before constructing cake using cherry pie filling and icing. Add nuts like almonds to the top if desired.
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Christmas Cake Cookies

christmas cake cookies header

A Merry Christmas Eve to everyone! As Christmas approaches, many of you have probably made countless desserts to share with family and friends this holiday season. If you haven’t started yet, or you’re looking for something different to add to your Christmas time cookie arsenal, we have a Christmas Cake Cookie recipe that is a fun and tasty twist on the traditional holiday fruitcake.

christmas cake cookies

Here’s what Marguerite had to say:

christmas cake cookies recipe

As you can see in Marguerite’s ingredient list, she called for dates in addition to quite a few other ingredients. We couldn’t find them easily and we also weren’t too keen on putting them in this recipe anyway. So we decided to skip them and just go with the ingredients we were more familiar with. Now, some of you may be looking at this and saying, ‘a pound of nuts and a pound of candied fruit is going to make a lot of cookies.’ Aaron really wishes he had thought that before he mixed all these ingredients together. Over an hour later and a lot of spooning of dough, Aaron had churned out almost 90 cookies! Now that we’ve made and tasted these cookies, we’re glad we made that many to share with our friends and families, but boy was it tiring at the time.

christmas cookies

I mentioned earlier that these Christmas Cake Cookies are a twist on the holiday fruitcake. We here at Marguerite’s Cookbook have never actually had a traditional fruitcake, but we know all about the negative stereotype fruitcake has been saddled with. If fruitcake has been labeled as dry and hard, these Christmas Cake Cookies are the exact opposite! The cookies were soft and cooked through perfectly, turning out to be yet another success.

cake cookies

We both really enjoyed these cookies, because well, they’re cookies. Having more brown sugar than other cookie recipes was a big plus for me, since I would bathe in brown sugar and butter if it we’re practical. Aaron liked the combination of nuts and candied fruit. The reds and greens of the candied cherries helped put us in a holiday mood and makes these cookies extra festive.We hope our friends and families enjoy these Christmas Cake Cookies as much as we did as we share them over the holidays!

christmas cake cookies and milk

Christmas Cake Cookies
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
90 cookies 1 hour
Cook Time
30 minutes
Servings Prep Time
90 cookies 1 hour
Cook Time
30 minutes
Christmas Cake Cookies
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
90 cookies 1 hour
Cook Time
30 minutes
Servings Prep Time
90 cookies 1 hour
Cook Time
30 minutes
Ingredients
Servings: cookies
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs.
  3. Sift dry ingredients together and add fruits and nuts to dry ingredients.
  4. Add dry ingredients to the rest of the batter.
  5. Drop by teaspoonfuls into tea sized (mini) cupcake liners. Do not grease papers or trays.
  6. Bake for 13 minutes at 350.
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Peanut Butter Meringue Pie

peanutbuttermeringuepie

We are very excited to bring you another unique pie as we continue pie month! Aaron and I were looking forward to this peanut butter meringue pie until we looked at the length of both the ingredient list and directions. This is probably the most difficult and most involved recipe we have attempted in our first year of Marguerite’s Cookbook. However difficult, this pie cannot be considered anything less than a delicious success!

Here’s what Marguerite had to say:

peanutbutterpierecipe

When reading over the recipe, Aaron realized we had to ask a more experienced baker quite a few questions to even be able to attempt this pie. So we called Mercedes and got some direction on everything from scalded milk to meringue. Recently, Aaron has been doing most of the cooking while I observe due to our tiny kitchen, but not this time. It took both of us, most of our mixing bowls and saucepans, and a long time to put this peanut butter meringue pie together.

peanut butter meringue pie

This definitely wasn’t the most stress-free recipe, and it didn’t turn out perfectly, but we’ll consider it a success. The custard was difficult and important, since it was the majority of the pie. The meringue was also very challenging. On top of all that, it is not the most attractive pie. But you know what they say, “don’t judge a peanut butter meringue pie by its cover.”

peanut butter pie

I was expecting this pie to basically look like a pumpkin pie, but like with just peanut butter. Well, I was surprised. The flavor was to die for though. Aaron really liked this pie, and not just because he would live on peanut butter if I let him. He made sure to try every bit of the pie individually, so he could really decipher the flavors that made up our peanut butter meringue pie. The custard and meringue taste as they should, and can be considered successful first attempts at both of those components. Of course the peanut butter/powdered sugar component was the highlight of the pie, and made it incredibly sweet. Overall, another success!

Peanut Butter Meringue Pie
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
1 pie 45 minutes
Cook Time
20 minutes
Servings Prep Time
1 pie 45 minutes
Cook Time
20 minutes
Peanut Butter Meringue Pie
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
1 pie 45 minutes
Cook Time
20 minutes
Servings Prep Time
1 pie 45 minutes
Cook Time
20 minutes
Ingredients
Servings: pie
Instructions
  1. Combine the powdered sugar and peanut butter together.
  2. Sprinkle 3/4 of this mixture on the bottom of a baked pie crust. Keep the other 1/4 for topping.
  3. Scald 2 cups of whole milk and set aside to cool.
  4. Combine the cornstarch, sugar, and salt together. Add the slightly cooled milk and mix well.
  5. Beat egg yolks well, add a small amount of the milk mixture over yolks and mix well.
  6. Add eggs to rest of milk mixture. Cook in double boiler until mixture thickens. Remove from heat.
  7. Add the butter and vanilla.
  8. Pour into shell.
  9. Beat the 3 egg whites, cream of tartar, and a pinch of salt until stiff and dry. Slowly add the sugar. Continue beating until stiff. Spread over pie and seal edges.
  10. Place in 325 degree oven on second rack and bake 15-20 minutes (until meringue is browned.)
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Creme de Menthe Pie

 

cremedementheheader

Now that we’ve shown you Marguerite’s pie crust, we’re NOT going to use it today. Let’s change gears! Our first pie is a Creme de Menthe Pie that is anything but traditional. It has some exciting and different ingredients and turned out quite unlike anything we expected.

Here’s what Marguerite had to say:

creme-de-menthe-recipe

In researching ingredients for this recipe, both Aaron and I did not realize that Creme de Menthe was a liqueur. In the 25 plus years Aaron knew Marguerite, he never knew her to have a drink, or talk about alcoholic beverages. There isn’t much of this mint liqueur in the pie, but it made a great additional flavor. Aaron had to go to three different stores to find Creme de Menthe, which was the hardest part of the recipe!

Grasshopper Pie

Aaron’s favorite part of this creme de menthe pie recipe was making the crust. It called for 24 Oreo cookies, but without the cream in the middle. Aaron of course didn’t want that filling to go to waste . . .

Mixing a whole 32 ounces of Cool Whip in our average sized stand mixer, in our 24 square foot kitchen was a test in patience, but other than that, making this recipe was pretty simply. Once we poured the liquid into the spring form pan, all that was left was to wait for it to set.

Creme-de-Menth

As you can see, it had a slight tint of green that really just hinted at the mint flavor. I think next time, I’ll add a little green food coloring to make it more fun. The thing that surprised us the most about the creme de menthe pie was the consistency and texture. While it retained some of the stickiness and elasticity of the little bit of marshmallow fluff, it could only be described as ice cream cake like. It was firm right out of the freezer, but did melt like ice cream but slower. We both loved this creme de menthe pie! My favorite things about it were the fact that it tasted like ice cream cake, as well as the hint of mint flavor. Aaron is not necessarily lining up for super-minty anything, but even he enjoyed the mint flavor of this recipe. He also appreciated the way the mint flavor paired with the Oreo crust.

Creme-de-Menth Pie

With the holidays coming up, this creme de menthe pie recipe could be a great treat. Or you could save it for a warm summer night (when those finally come back around!)

Creme de Menthe Pie
Print Recipe
Prep Time
45 minutes
Passive Time
2 hours
Prep Time
45 minutes
Passive Time
2 hours
Creme de Menthe Pie
Print Recipe
Prep Time
45 minutes
Passive Time
2 hours
Prep Time
45 minutes
Passive Time
2 hours
Ingredients
Crust
Filling
Servings:
Instructions
Crust
  1. Remove cream from Oreos and roll into crumbs.
  2. Toss Oreo crumbs with melted butter.
  3. Put into a 9" spring form pan, reserving 1/2 cup for garnish.
Filling
  1. Gradually add Creme de Menthe to marshmallow cream until well blended.
  2. Fold Cool Whip into mixture.
  3. Pour into pan.
  4. Freeze for several hours until firm. Sprinkle remaining crumbs on as a garnish.
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Broccoli Chowder Soup

chowdersoupheader

What’s better in cool fall weather than a nice warm bowl of soup? I’d say not many things are. Considering the fact that both of us came down with the flu this past week, soup was a much needed thing. This broccoli chowder soup is a delicious creamy treat to keep you warm this fall. If you liked our broccoli cheese soup, then you will really like this broccoli chowder soup!

Here’s what Marguerite had to say:

broccoli chowder soup recipe

You may notice that Marguerite calls for either three packages of frozen broccoli or one head of fresh broccoli. Aaron had a bit of trouble reading this recipe, and at first thought he was supposed to cook both frozen and fresh broccoli. He could try and blame it on the diminishing use of cursive writing these days, but it just wasn’t his day. After fixing that issue, this soup turned out great.

Broccoli Chowder Soup

Aaron was proud of his time management during this recipe, chopping ingredients efficiently while other ingredients cooked in the pot. That was, until he let the broth, milk, and ham boil over. He caught it quickly enough and turned the heat down before he burnt the milk. After he added the remaining ingredients, this broccoli chowder soup took shape right away.

 

Chowder Soup

I don’t particularly care for creamy soups, so I only had a few spoonfuls. It was very appetizing and just like a broccoli chowder soup should taste, just not my thing. Aaron really enjoyed it, and commented that he liked it more even more than the aforementioned broccoli cheese soup. Marguerite did us a favor and put both recipes on the same page, which made comparing them to each other easier. He thinks the chowder was better due to the increased milk/cream, decreased chicken broth, and how it was cooked up. The extra cheese didn’t hurt either.

 

Broccoli Chowder

This broccoli chowder soup will definitely warm Aaron’s stomach this fall. If you need a tasty soup to warm you up this season, Marguerite’s broccoli chowder soup can hit the spot.

Broccoli Chowder Soup
Print Recipe
Servings
6
Cook Time
30 minutes
Servings
6
Cook Time
30 minutes
Broccoli Chowder Soup
Print Recipe
Servings
6
Cook Time
30 minutes
Servings
6
Cook Time
30 minutes
Ingredients
Servings:
Instructions
  1. Cook broccoli in chicken broth until broccoli is tender.
  2. While broccoli is cooking, chop the ham.
  3. Once broccoli is tender, remove broccoli with a slotted spoon.
  4. Add milk, ham, salt, and pepper to chicken broth and bring to a boil. While these ingredients heat up, finely chop the broccoli.
  5. Once boiling, add broccoli, along with half & half, cheese, and butter.
  6. Stir together over low heat until all ingredients are incorporated.
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Coffee Cake

coffee cake header

Coffee cake is one of those desserts that can be made in so many different ways and with many different flavors. This is just a basic coffee cake recipe given to Marguerite by another of her teaching colleagues, Susie Matha. Sometimes, plain and simple recipes are the way to go.

 

Here is what Susie had to say:

sour-cream-coffee-cake-recipe

First things first, Aaron was confused that this recipe was called sour cream coffee cake and he was confused that the recipe did, in fact, contain sour cream. He did not realize that sour cream can be a common ingredient in baked goods. He also didn’t realize how much work could go in to preparing a baked good to be made. We both felt that it took a bit too long of a time to put together, between the combining of ingredients, the grinding of nuts, and the layering of batter and filling in the pan. But it was sooooooo delicious.

sour cream coffee cake

It was soft and spongy like a well made cake should be, plus the cinnamon, sugar, and nuts (we used almonds), made a delicious filling. We made sure to grease and flour the pan before pouring the batter, which was great help in removing the pieces of cake after baking.

 

The aroma of this cake filled our apartment for like two hours. By the time we cut into it, we we’re impatient and hungry. Cutting the coffee cake a little too soon caused it to be too soft and to crumble as we tried to take it out. Once cooled the cake was easy to cut and plate to eat. Was it ever delicious! I wasn’t crazy about how brown the sides and bottom got, and that may be due to over baking it, or even due to the type of tube pan we used. But I did enjoy the insides of the coffee cake. Aaron enjoyed it greatly as well. He, of course, enjoyed several pieces along with coffee.

coffee cake

Thankfully for both of us, Aaron took the extra to share with his coworkers. They also really enjoyed it and upon cleaning out the container it was in, told Aaron he could “take it home and fill it with more coffee cake!” I think we would consider that a great success.

Coffee Cake
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
1 cake 40 minutes
Cook Time
90 minutes
Servings Prep Time
1 cake 40 minutes
Cook Time
90 minutes
Coffee Cake
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
1 cake 40 minutes
Cook Time
90 minutes
Servings Prep Time
1 cake 40 minutes
Cook Time
90 minutes
Ingredients
Batter
Filling
Servings: cake
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Cream butter and sugar together very well.
  3. Add one egg at a time, beating after each one.
  4. Add sour cream, then vanilla.
  5. Mix well.
  6. Sift together dry ingredients, then slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Mix well again.
  7. Combine filling ingredients.
  8. Grease and flour tube pan. Put one third of batter into pan, then one third of filling. Then second third of batter and second third of filling. Pour on remaining batter and cut through as for marble cake. Top with remaining filling and bake one and a half hours at 350.
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Inside-Out Chicken Kiev

chickenkievheader

There’s no question that the most numerous type of recipe in Marguerite’s cookbook is desserts, and we’ll get back to another one of those next week! But first, a recipe that is most likely the second popular in the book—a chicken recipe. This inside-out chicken kiev was a delicious twist on a classic!

Here’s what Marguerite had to say:

Chicken Kiev Recipe

You may notice a few differences between Marguerite’s recipe and our version below. The main difference is the title. We knew that a typical chicken kiev usually has the butter and spices stuffed and cooked on the inside, which was not a part of Marguerite’s recipe. So we decided to rename this recipe ‘inside-out chicken kiev.’ Aaron was almost as excited about the catchy new name as he was about the dish itself!

insideoutchickenkiev

Some other changes we made included minimizing the cook time from Marguerite’s and substituting dried ingredients for fresh ones. We make some type of chicken recipe about once a week and usually only cook it for up to 30 minutes. So when we read how long Marguerite wanted us to cook this recipe, we thought: That’s crazy! And so Aaron’s mother fielded yet another recipe-related phone call from us. We seriously call her 3-4 times while making these. Seriously. She agreed with Marguerite on the cooking time, but the thought of overly dry chicken still made us cringe. We’re glad we went with our guts and cut the cook time. Sorry Marguerite and Mercedes!

inside out chicken kiev

This inside-out chicken kiev smelled great while it was cooking, which made waiting for dinner time to eat it torture! I really liked this chicken recipe. I’ve liked almost all of the things we’ve been making lately, actually. The combination of the spices on the chicken made it incredibly flavorful. A whole bunch of butter slathered on it doesn’t hurt either. As Marguerite’s mother always said “If it calls for one stick of butter, then two will make it twice as good!” Okay, Paula Deen. Aaron also liked this inside-out chicken kiev. But, as I’ve mentioned before, he likes everything.

inside out chickenkiev

We hope you try this simple recipe with your family. We think you’ll enjoy this inside-out chicken kiev as much as we did!

Inside-Out Chicken Kiev
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
2 10 minutes
Cook Time
30 minutes
Servings Prep Time
2 10 minutes
Cook Time
30 minutes
Inside-Out Chicken Kiev
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
2 10 minutes
Cook Time
30 minutes
Servings Prep Time
2 10 minutes
Cook Time
30 minutes
Ingredients
Servings:
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Melt butter in shallow dish.
  3. Mix bread crumbs, cheese, and spices (salt, garlic salt, oregano, and basil.)
  4. Dip chicken in butter, then crumb mixture.
  5. Place in casserole dish and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
  6. Mix apple juice, onion, and parsley.
  7. Add to leftover butter.
  8. When 30 minute cook time has passed, pour apple juice mixture over chicken and bake 2 to 3 minutes more.
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Fourth of July Thumbprint Cookies

Thumbprint Cookies

Happy Fourth of July Weekend! We hope you’re having a safe and fun one. We happen to be hanging out with our family in Pittsburgh all weekend and maybe sharing a few of these delicious thumbprint cookies with them. Or keeping them all to ourselves…

This recipe happened to be a Christmas staple of Marguerite’s, but there are only so many desserts we can share with you in December. So, we adapted the decor of these thumbprint cookies to be a little more seasonally appropriate.

Thumbprint Cookies Recipe

Aaron and I decided to make the thumbprint cookies with nuts on the outside like Marguerite described, as well as a way we were more familiar with: substituting the nuts for sprinkles (or “jimmies” as we Pittsburghers call them.)

Thumbprint Cookies Prep

We made these cookies twice, both times about 6 with nuts and 8 with sprinkles. The first time we made them, they were so dry! They crumbled in our hands and were not pleasant to eat. The second time, we cut back by about two tablespoons on flour and we used only softened butter instead of a butter/Crisco combo (noted below.) This would have been much better if one of us (we’re not sure whom) hadn’t bumped the oven during the thumbprinting step! Somehow it got turned up to 425 and our cookies had burned bottoms when we removed them. The third time is the charm I suppose?

Thumbprint Cookies with nuts

The nut version of the cookies were good. I’m not a huge fan of nuts, but the sugar off-set them nicely. I wish we had put an almond in the center of the nut cookies, but I was sort of on a roll with the piping bag…

Thumbprint Cookies

The sprinkle versions were amazing! Aaron, his cousin Kiersten, and myself all have fond memories of our childhood in a Pittsburgh grocery store called Giant Eagle. Whenever your parents dragged you in with them, you could always count on the friendly people behind the bakery and deli counters to give your adorable self a free slice of American cheese and a free thumbprint cookie, just for being a cute kid. This recipe definitely got me nostalgic for those days, especially with the substitution of sprinkles for nuts.

Thumbprint Cookies

Not only are thumbprint cookies a classic, but they’re so adaptable for any time of the year. Halloween? Black and orange sprinkles! Valentines day? Pink and red icing! The possibilities are endless.

Thumbprint Cookies

Tell us, are you making anything fun for the holiday weekend?

Fourth of July Thumbprint Cookies
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
1-2 dozen 15 minutes
Cook Time
10-12 minutes
Servings Prep Time
1-2 dozen 15 minutes
Cook Time
10-12 minutes
Fourth of July Thumbprint Cookies
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
1-2 dozen 15 minutes
Cook Time
10-12 minutes
Servings Prep Time
1-2 dozen 15 minutes
Cook Time
10-12 minutes
Ingredients
Servings: dozen
Instructions
  1. Mix butter, brown sugar, vanilla, and egg yolk thoroughly.
  2. Sift flour and salt together and stir in. Stir in a little at a time to ensure cookies don't get too dry.
  3. Roll into one inch balls.
  4. Dip in slightly beaten egg white. Roll in finely chopped nuts.
  5. Place about one inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for five minutes. Remove from oven.
  6. Quickly place thumb gently on top of each cookie. Return to oven and bake 5-8 more minutes. Cool.
  7. Place in thumbprints a bit of candied fruit, jelly, or tinted powdered sugar icing.
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Brown Rice Casserole

BrownRiceHeader

It’s time for another installment in “Marguerite’s Casseroles!” But seriously, this cookbook is chock full of them. This, recipe, which we are calling brown rice casserole, is another one. I was hoping this was going to turn out more like fried rice, but that was not the case.

Here’s what Marguerite had to say (including her recipe title):

Brown Rice Casserole Recipe

Preparation for this dish was really simple. We bought a can of water chestnuts that was already sliced to save time. This was a very simple recipe, with only a few ingredients. As Aaron and I were making this recipe, I started realizing it was probably not something I was going to enjoy.

Brown Rice Casserole

I do like water chestnuts, and rice, but honestly that’s where my enjoyment of this dish ended. They can’t all be winners, huh? We did run in to one issue when gathering the ingredients for this recipe. Due to shopping at a small grocery store, and due to lack of planning, we could only find french onion soup, and not plain onion soup. Aaron decided that if anything, it would improve the recipe.

Brown Rice Casserole

While the brown rice casserole was not the most delicious recipe in our opinion, it did at least turn out well. Aaron didn’t love this recipe either. He liked the mushrooms in the brown rice casserole more than the water chestnuts. We make a great pair! If you want to try a simple rice with some interesting flavor, give this brown rice casserole a try. We’re still not sure why she called it an “Oriental Rice.”

Brown Rice Casserole

Brown Rice Casserole
Print Recipe
Servings
4-6
Cook Time
1 hour 10 minutes
Servings
4-6
Cook Time
1 hour 10 minutes
Brown Rice Casserole
Print Recipe
Servings
4-6
Cook Time
1 hour 10 minutes
Servings
4-6
Cook Time
1 hour 10 minutes
Ingredients
Servings:
Instructions
  1. Melt butter. Add rice, chestnuts, and mushrooms. Cook 10 minutes.
  2. Add soup and liquid.
  3. Pour in casserole dish. Cover and bake for one hour at 300 degrees.
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