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CARRIE'S RECIPES:
Carrie McCrite is
not a by-the-book-cook. In fact, she owns no recipe books. She does keep
a few staples on hand in her kitchen, and, when guests arrive, when hunger
calls, or when it's simply that time, she begins to create.
Carrie's recipe Index
Almost Instant Dinner for
a Crowd
Carrie's Baggie Omelets
Carrie's BUN-ZAS
Carrie's Chicken Pie
Carrie's Cookie Crisps
Carrie's Fingerprint Fudge
Carrie's Magic Two Meatloaf
Carrie's Peculiar Pizza
No-thaw Hamburger Bake
Carrie's Holiday Salad
Carrie's Peculiar Pizza
1 tube crescent rolls
1 lb lean hamburger
1 small onion, chopped
1 jar spaghetti sauce (Picante sauce or salsa will also work.)
Carrie uses an 8 oz. jar but if you like more tomato taste, 16 oz. is fine.
1 small can black olives
1 small can mushrooms (optional)
Italian seasoning to taste
8 oz. mozzarella cheese (2 cups). Okay to use more if you like
a lot of cheese.
Cook hamburger until all the pink is gone, add chopped onion and cook
until it begins to look clear. Stir in olives, mushrooms, jar
of sauce, and Italian seasoning.
Remove crescent rolls from tube, unroll, and fit around bottom of an 8 or
9" round cake-type pan. Pat the dough until the pan bottom is covered
smoothly and dough comes up the sides. Spoon in the filling, put in
350 degree oven for about ten minutes. Sprinkle the cheese on
top of the pizza, increase oven temperature to 400 degrees, return pan to
oven until cheese is melted and bubbly and crust has browned on edges.
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Carrie's Baggie Omelets
For each omelet you'll need:
1 - one-quart zip-lock freezer bag
2 eggs
Whatever you like in an omelet: Chunks of onion, green pepper,
bacon...etc.
Salt and pepper to taste
And...1 large kettle of already boiling water (Rolling boil)
If you are using onions, sauté lightly or soften in the microwave.
Cook any meat you have selected. Chop everything you are adding
into small pieces.
Break two eggs into a baggie. Seal, removing as much air as possible.
Squeeze and squish with your hand until eggs are well mixed.
Open baggie and add vegetables, meats, and seasonings you have selected.
Seal bag again, removing air, and squish to mix.
Drop bag(s) in kettle of boiling water and boil for exactly thirteen minutes.
Remove from water and roll omelet out on plate. If you
wish, add shredded cheese immediately.
(Do not put cheese in the baggie.)
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Carrie's Chicken Pie
1 -16 oz bag frozen mixed vegetables
2 refrigerated pie crusts
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/4 cup milk
2 - 4 1/2 or 5 oz cans white chicken meat, cut into bite-sized pieces
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion
Thaw frozen mixed vegetables in the microwave,
about three minutes in a microwave container. Mix all ingredients
but milk and pie crusts together. Add amount of milk needed to make
desired creamy consistency. Spoon mixture in bottom pie crust, top
with second crust. Pinch edges, cut vents. Place on baking sheet
in 375 degree oven and bake 35-45 minutes or until crust is golden brown.
Four to six servings.
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Carrie's Fingerprint Fudge
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate bits
2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk--such as Eagle Brand
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pecan halves/sprinkles/colored icing/coconut/?
Melt chocolate bits over hot, not boiling,
water. When melted, remove from stove and stir in sweetened condensed milk,
water, and vanilla extract. Stir until smooth, but do not beat. Leave mixture
in pan over hot water so it doesn't harden too quickly.
Drop individual dollops of the chocolate
mixture from a teaspoon onto waxed paper in the size you want candy pieces
to be. Press dampened thumb in center of each piece as you drop it on the
paper (Suggest dipping thumb in small bowl of water each time, NOT licking
it). Dampening your thumb (or a finger) keeps it from sticking in the chocolate.
Put pecan half (or almond, or?) in each thumb
print indentation, or fill with sprinkles or colored icing or coconut, or
? Carrie sometimes puts peanut butter in each thumb print when Rob comes
to visit. He likes that combination, though Carrie has yet to find anyone
else who does. If you do, let her know, c/o Radine through this web site.
Let cool. Eat.
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Carrie's
Cookie Crisps
Put cooking spray over bottom
of 9x13 cake pan. Cover bottom of pan with one layer whole graham crackers.
(You'll have to break a few to fit ends and edges.)
Boil together for one minute:
a generous half cup of margarine (butter is okay) and a generous half cup
packed brown sugar.
Drizzle this syrup over the
graham crackers. Don't worry that it doesn't cover all of them. Just drizzle
evenly. Spread on chopped nuts to cover.
Bake, 350 degrees, 10 minutes.
Cool. Cut. Serve.
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Carrie's
BUN-ZAS (A quick meal for children and adults)
Hamburger or hot-dog buns split in half
bottled Italian dressing
ground sausage meat
chunky salsa
grated mozzarella cheese
Cook sausage gently in a small amount of water in a covered skillet until
done. (Use the equivalent of one patty for each hamburger bun half,
or for two halves of a hot dog bun.) You want the cooked sausage to be soft,
not crisp. If you buy pre-formed patties, break them in small pieces
before cooking. Discard the water. Toast the buns lightly, or warm in your
microwave. Spread Italian dressing over all of the cut surface of
each bun half. Mixed cooked, drained sausage with salsa, allowing
about a third cup of chunky salsa for each hamburger bun half. Spread a
thick layer of salsa and meat over the bun surface, top with shredded cheese.
Toast in toaster oven until the cheese is bubbly and edges of bun turn brown
and crispy.
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Almost Instant Dinner for a Crowd
Brown two pounds lean hamburger meat, add
(amounts to taste) chopped onion, minced garlic, basil, oregano, salt and
pepper. Stir together and cook until onion is clear. Then add 2 T flour
for each pound of meat, stir in well, cook until flour is no longer white.
Add one 14.5-15 oz. can diced tomatoes with juice per pound of hamburger.
Remove from heat.
Cook a package of wide egg noodles, drain,
combine with meat mixture, put in 9 x 13 cake pan, (for two pounds of meat)
cover liberally with grated cheese, bake at 350 for about 35 minutes or
until cheese is melted and meat mixture is bubbling.
Special information: When Carrie is preparing
a romantic dinner for two, she cuts the recipe in half and adds candles
(on the table, not in the casserole).
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Carrie has invented another superior hamburger recipe!
No-thaw Hamburger Bake
Heat oven to 350 degrees
Use approx. 1 lb lean hamburger, frozen in a lump, just as it came from the
grocery store and went into your freezer. (If the hamburger isn't frozen,
reduce the baking time 30 minutes, but this recipe--trust Carrie--tastes
better made with frozen hamburger. Who knows why!)
1 can beef broth (Carrie prefers no-fat broth from the health food store).
About 5 ounces tomato juice or similar tomato product. (Carrie uses
seasoned tomato sauce she makes herself from garden tomatoes. Lots of
tomato products are good with this recipe, and, like Carrie, you'll want to
experiment after you've tried it once. Salsa, picante sauce, seasoned
canned tomatoes, and much more, are possibilities. If the tomato product
is very thick, add water.)
Quantities of all additions are flexible, according to your taste. Just be
sure there is plenty of liquid around the meat.
1 medium to large onion, cut in strips, length-wise.
1 green pepper, cut in strips, length-wise, membrane and seeds removed.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Add crushed garlic or other seasonings to the liquid if you'd like.
--
Unwrap meat and put it in a large casserole dish (3 quart or larger) or
roaster with a lid. Salt and pepper the meat lump, arrange onion and
pepper slices on top. Pour the broth and tomato juice around the sides.
Bake covered, 350 degrees, hour and a half. For more than two or three
people, increase the amount of hamburger and test for doneness after the
first hour and a half. (Meat will have a pinkish cast because of the
tomato.) If not done, cook an additional 15 to 20 minutes per added pound,
being sure there is always plenty of liquid around the meat. When done,
thicken gravy by adding a tablespoon or so of corn starch softened in water
and stirred into the liquid. Then return the meat and sauce to the oven
until gravy thickens. Serve with potatoes or rice, vegetable, and a fruit
salad.
One variation Carrie makes is "No-thaw Meat Balls." When the meat has
softened during the baking, use a teaspoon to break the big chunk into
meatball-sized pieces. (Scrape off the onion and pepper and let it float
in the sauce.) Use mostly tomato juice or some version thereof for the
liquid in this recipe, and serve over pasta or rice with garlic toast and a
tossed salad or raw vegetable platter.
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Carrie's Magic Two Meatloaf
(Quantities are easier to
remember, Carrie believes, if they all have the same number.)
2 lbs. lean ground beef
(Scant) 2 cups dry poultry stuffing mix
(Scant) 2 cups tomato juice, or enough to soften mix
2 eggs
(Scant) 2 tsp. salt, or salt to taste
pepper to taste
2 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons prepared mustard
2 quarter-cups minced onion
(For everyone except Carrie, that's 1/2 cup)
Soften stuffing mix in juice. Beat eggs and
add. Add remaining ingredients, mix well, and shape into a loaf in a roasting
pan. Bake, covered, at 350 degrees for at least 1 1/2 hours. Put small whole
peeled potatoes around the loaf for the last hour of baking.
Carrie serves this with home-made apple or
pear sauce (peel, slice, and cook fruit, season as you wish, whir in a blender),
fresh or frozen green beans, and crescent rolls from Pillsbury Doughboy
pop-open tube.
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Carrie's Holiday Salad
One can jellied cranberry
sauce
2 packages raspberry gelatin (Or one double package)
1 bag frozen raspberries, thawed, with whatever juice they make
One-half cup raspberry yogurt (if not available, use plain)
Dissolve gelatin in three cups hot water. Using wire whisk, stir in
the can of jellied cranberry sauce, cutting and stirring until it's mostly
blended in the warm gelatin. Add yogurt. Blend. Stir in
thawed berries. Chill, stirring occasionally to be sure berries stay
blended throughout the gelatin.
(If you like this to be sweeter, you can sprinkle sugar on the berries as
they thaw. Be sure sugar dissolves before you stir the berries into
the gelatin. Juice should not exceed a half cup.)
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