White Wine (Spiced Rum) Cake

1 Package of White Cake Mix (Plus the ingredients of the cake mix)

1 Package of Instant Vinilla Pudding

1 cup of White Wine or Spiced Rum (I prefer spiced rum)

1 tsp of vanilla 

Shortening, sugar, cinnamon

Make the cake batter and add spiced rum and vanilla. Take bunt pan and put a good coating of shorttening around the inside of the pan. Now coat the inside of the pan with a sugar cinnamon mixture (about 1 part cinnamon to 3 parts sugar). Make sure the coating is even around the pan. Bake as directed on directions on box. 

Serve hot with Butter Brickle or Butter Pecan  ice cream with Butterscotch sauce. 

Beef with Dumplings

1 1/2  cups butter

3 1/2 pound boneless round steak, cut into thin strips
2 cup chopped onion
2-3 Jalapeno pepper(s), seeded (red or green)
2 pound mushrooms, sliced
1 cup flour
4 cups beef broth, canned
2 cup dry white wine
2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Few drops Tabasco sauce

Melt 1 cup butter in large frypan.  Brown meat over medium-high heat.  Remove browned meat.

Saute onion in remaining butter 2 minutes.  Add pepper and mushrooms.  Cook 3 minutes.  Remove mushroom mixture.

Melt 1/2 cup butter; add flour.  Slowly add broth; cook until thickened.  Stir in wine and seasonings.  Add meat-and-mushroom mixture; cover.  Simmer 45 minutes to 1 hour, until meat is tender.

Serve with dumplings.

Dumplings

4 Tablespoons shortening
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 2/3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk

Cut shortening into flour, baking powder and salt with a fork or pastry blender until mixture resembles fine crumbs.  Stir in milk.  Drop dough by spoonfuls onto hot meat or vegetables in boiling stew (do not drop directly into liquid).  
Cook uncovered 10 minutes.
Cover and cook 10 minutes longer.
Yield:  13 dumplings

Servers 6

Chicken Noodle Soup

3 - 4 Boxes of Chicken Stock

4 Chicken Breasts

Thick Egg Noodles (I get the ones from Costco)

Cerlery

Carrots

Salt and Pepper 

Cut the chicken into small chunks, then boil the Chickenin chicken stock. After they are cooked all the way through, add noodles, cerlery, and carrots.  Salt and Pepper to taste

Chili (As Cooked by Sharon Krueger)

12 oz. Ground Beef

1 Med Onion chopped

1 tsp garlic powder

1 can of tomatoes

1 can of dark red kidney beans (rinse and drain)

1 can of tomato paste

2-3 tsp chili powder

1 tsp dried basil, crushed red pepper

In a large saucepan, cook ground beef, onion, garlic until meat is brown and onion tender. Drain fat. Stir in undrained tomatoes, kidney beans, tomato sauce, chili powder, basil and pepper. Bring to boiling, reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Makes about 5 cups (4main dish serverings)

Pumpkin Banana Mousse Tart

For the crust:

• 2 cups graham cracker crumbs (14 crackers)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:

• 1/2 cup half-and-half
• 1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree
• 1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3 extra-large egg yolks
• 1 package (2 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin
• 1 ripe banana, finely mashed
• 1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest
• 1/2 cup cold heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons sugar

For the decoration:

• 1 cup (1/2 pint) cold heavy cream
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• Orange zest (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, cinnamon, and melted butter in a bowl and mix well. Pour into an 11-inch tart pan with a removable bottom and press evenly into the sides and then the bottom. Bake for 10 minutes and then cool to room temperature.

For the filling, heat the half-and-half, pumpkin, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water until hot, about 5 minutes. Whisk the egg yolks in another bowl, stir some of the hot pumpkin into the egg yolks to heat them, then pour the egg-pumpkin mixture back into the double boiler and stir well. Heat the mixture over the simmering water for another 4 to 5 minutes, until it begins to thicken, stirring constantly. You don’t want the eggs to scramble. Remove from the heat.

Dissolve the gelatin in 1/4 cup cold water. Add the dissolved gelatin, banana, and orange zest to the pumpkin mixture and mix well. Set aside to cool.

Whip the heavy cream in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment until soft peaks form. Add the sugar and continue to whisk until you have firm peaks. Carefully fold the whipped cream into the pumpkin mixture and pour it into the cooled tart shell. Chill for 2 hours or overnight.

For the decoration, whip the heavy cream in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until soft peaks form. Add the sugar and vanilla and continue to whisk until you have firm peaks. Pipe or spoon the whipped cream decoratively on the tart and sprinkle, if desired, with orange zest. Serve chilled.

Serves 10.