The purpose of this recipe newsletter is to post requests and replies, and recipes  from our recipe family (members) and to post all their great tried and tested (TNT) recipes.  To search for a specific recipe within the newsletter please click here.

With this recipe, you can save time and effort on those hurried occasions by making up the batter ahead.  Better yet, make double or triple batches and always have batter on hand.  Store it the refrigerator in a covered container for up to three weeks, then fill the muffin tins that you need and return the rest to the refrigerator for another day.  Let the muffins bake while you do your other tasks. 

If you prefer, you can make these muffins without refrigeration and still store any leftover batter until you are ready to bake more muffins.

The following recipe makes about 18 large muffins.  The recipe can be doubled or tripled to make plenty of batter for later occasions. 

Refrigerator Bran Muffins
3 cups all-bran cereal such as All Bran or Bran Buds
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup very hot water
2 large eggs
2 cups buttermilk
1 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup stone ground wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

1. In a medium bowl, add the cereal and raisins and then the very hot water.  Stir in the melted butter.  Set it aside to soak.
2. In another bowl, whisk the eggs and stir in the buttermilk and sugar until the sugar is dissolved. 
3. In a large bowl, whisk the flours, salt, and baking soda together until well combined. 
4. Make a crater in the dry ingredients.  Pour in the egg mixture and the cereal mixture and then stir with a spatula until combined.  
5. If you choose to make muffins now, fill well-greased tins two-thirds full.  Refrigerate the remaining batter in a covered container in the refrigerator.
6. Bake the muffins for 14 to 18 minutes or until they test done.  Let them sit in the tins for several minutes and then remove them to wire racks to cool.  Freeze any leftovers. 

This is a great recipe to use in your RV.  Simply mix the muffins in the kitchen at home and pack the batter in the RV.  You can bake up as many muffins as you need anytime that you need them.  For more RV and cabin and suggestions, click here. 

Hello, everyone. So sorry to hear of Phyllis passing on, we have already lost 4 friends in this last month, and all of you newsletter buddies count as friends too. Sincere sympathy to the family.
To happier thoughts, for Catherine in Mobile AL.

Panhandle Tomato Gravy
6 slices bacon (I use pre-cooked when I need to save time)
1 small onion, chopped
1 rounded serving (not measuring) T. flour
15 oz. plain stewed tomatoes (sliced type are good)
plenty of salt and pepper
Bell pepper slices for garnish if you want them

Fry bacon till crisp; set aside; cook onion in drippings till clear. Wisk flour into tomatoes and add to the pan; stir and cook till thick. Can let this sit on stove now several hours and just re-heat. Crumble the bacon over it just before serving, after you have it on whatever you're putting it on; good over beef (like your meat loaf), pork, grits, polenta (mush), cornbread, and oven fried fish or chicken, too. This recipe came from 'Red' Turner, now of Zellwood.

Fresh Tomato Gravy
2 T. margarine or butter or canola oil to be healthier
1/4 c. sweet onion, minced, like Vidalia or Florida Sweet
2 buds garlic, minced
3 large ripe tomatoes, seeded if you like, diced
1/4 tsp. each dried sage and dried thyme and salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1/2 c. heavy (or whipping) cream

Sauté onion and garlic in fat 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Add other ingredients EXCEPT cream and simmer 3 minutes, still stirring.
Add cream and simmer, still stirring, till gravy thickens slightly. If you would like it to be thicker, toss 1 T. flour with the tomatoes before adding them to the pan..

Take off heat and taste to adjust seasoning. If your tomatoes were real acid, add a pinch or two of sugar.

Makes about 2 cups, easy to multiply, but will need simmered a bit longer. Good over pasta and rice and ham, as well as all the other good stuff.
Enjoy. Marilyn in FL

Hi All, I surely do appreciate all Nancy's hard work on this letter and her website! We just got an electric ice cream maker, one that doesn't use the ice and slat, and I wondered if anyone had a recipe for fresh peach ice cream? We're close to Georgia and the peaches are coming in now.
Also, my hubby can't have tomatoes in anything because he's allergic-anyone have some Italian recipes without tomatoes? I love pasta but only have a few recipes that I can use a white sauce on.
Thanks to all.
Sue in Fl

I'm looking for some jello recipes. I'm going to be cooking for my son's wedding, and would like to make a really unique, refreshing dessert to put on the table. Thank you in advance.
CindyO

I want to thank Carolu in Co., Donna L in Ohio, and Vickie from Fl for the Hershey Ice Cream notes. Vickie I will check the Kash and Karry in Dade City to see if they have Moose Tracks, if not I will buy it at Publix.
Thanks again Kathy in Fl

This is for Catherine in Mobile, Alabama from Frances in Wesley Chapel. This recipe was given to me by an excellent Georgia cook.

TOMATO GRAVY
1/3 cup chopped onion
3 Tbsp. bacon drippings
1 Tbsp. flour
3 or 4 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
3/4 cup water (milk for a richer gravy)
salt and pepper to taste, also sugar to taste

Sauté onion in bacon fat. Add flour and stir until brown. Add tomatoes, stir, and cook just a few minutes.
As gravy thickens, add water (or milk), a little at a time. Cook gravy until desired consistency. Add salt, pepper, and sugar.
Makes 2 cups.

This is for Mary in Ohio about the Angels for Soldiers website. I went and looked myself and this one appears to be the one you need. http://www.soldiersangels.org/

I do hope this gets you the information that you wished for.

My son will be leaving for the service in a couple of months. He will graduate May 25th from High School and starts a whole new life in July with the Army.

Its wonderful to see ppl like you take interest and know that there is a caring loving heart to those so very far from home.
Teresa in SW Oklahoma

In the May 18th Newsletter, Barbara in New Jersey was having trouble with her sour cream pound cake, gummy in the middle and hard on the top. Most pound cakes do have a hard top and sounds like your oven may be off or are not letting it bake long enough.. Here is a TNT recipe of mine which is (in my humble opinion) better than any sour cream cake I have ever made - it has never failed me unless my baking powder was going flat. I bake this cake at 300° no matter what type of pan as my oven is hot, not opening the oven for the first full hour, just until a probe (I use a wooden skewer) comes out clean. Any flavorings can be used, the original recipe called for vanilla and lemon but I like the flavor of the Vanilla/Butter Nut flavoring and I even add a teaspoon of butter flavoring on occasion in addition to the 2 in the recipe. Hope it works for you. Arvilla

Home Cookin 4.9 Chapter: Cakes

My Pound Cake
2-1/2 Sticks Butter
3 Cups Sugar
1 Cup Milk
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
1 Teaspoon Vanilla/Butter Nut Flav
5 Eggs
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
3 Cups Cake Flour
.
Cream Margarine And Sugar. Add Eggs One At A Time. Add Milk Alternately With Flour/Baking Powder Mixture. (I Add Flavoring To butter sugar mixture). Bake At 350 Degrees One Hour - Regular Cake Pan.. Bake At 300 Degrees One Hour - If You Use A Bundt Pan.
Servings: 4

This is for Barbara from Blackwood, New Jersey. She is requesting a Sour Cream Pound Cake recipe in the May 18, 2006 newsletter.

Sour Cream Pound Cake
3 cups sugar
1 cup margarine (room temperature)
5 med. eggs
3 cups plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sour cream
1-2 teaspoons vanilla flavoring

Cream sugar and margarine well then add the eggs one at a time. Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda then add this to the sugar mixture alternately with the sour cream beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Add the vanilla and mix well. Bake in a greased and floured cake pan in a slow oven. I use an angel food cake pan that has a permanent tube (the tube does not come out). I usually bake mine at 325 degrees until tests done. This may take 2 hours depending on the oven. I do not use a thin metal cake tester but a wooden skewer for this cake. I also cannot bake this cake in a silicone bundt pan. If I do there is always a soggy middle. Hope this recipe will give you good results.
Jessie - Kaunas, Lithuania

Here is the recipe for the best ever corn relish. I've been making it for over 10 years and it's easy and ohhhhhhhh so good. I also double or triple the recipe as it keeps for a while in the frig although that doesn't happen often here - we love it!

Corn Relish
3 ears of fresh corn, husks and silk removed
You can use 1 can of 15 oz corn but it is nowhere near as good
2 t olive or salad oil
1 small red pepper, diced
1 small jalapeno pepper, diced
1/2 small onion diced
1/2 t salt
1/4 t black pepper
2 T white wine vinegar
3/4 t sugar
1 T chopped cilantro leaves - if desired

In oil sauté corn, peppers, onion and seasonings until vegetables begin to soften - about 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients - vinegar, sugar AND 1 T water. Cook 5 more minutes until all vegetables are tender. Put in a jar and refrigerate - best done ahead for flavors to blend.
Adapted from Good Housekeeping
Rosemarie from rural Kansas City

This is for Esther in the 5/18 newsletter, who is looking for a rhubarb bread recipe. Thanks Nancy for all the updated recipes and sites that you have recently listed. You do an awesome job!
Robbie in Bowling Green, IN

Rhubarb Cinnamon Nut Bread
1-1/2 cups light brown sugar, packed
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2-1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream
1-1/2 cups diced rhubarb
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Topping
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Beat together the brown sugar, vegetable oil, egg and vanilla. Combine flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder; stir. Add dry ingredients to first mixture with the sour cream. Stir in rhubarb and nuts.

Pour into 2 greased 9x5-inch loaf pans. Combine topping ingredients; sprinkle over the loaves. Bake at 350° for about 55 to 65 minutes, or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.
Makes 2 loaves.

Hi Nancy,
In response to Esther Koosmann in the May 18th newsletter, looking for a recipe for a rhubarb cake, I had just found this one yesterday, on line at www.allrecipes.com. The site said this cake makes 18 servings:

Rhubarb Cake
1/2 Cup butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups rhubarb, chopped
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup packed brown sugar

In a large bowl, cream together butter or margarine and sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla. In another bowl, sift together 2 cups flour, soda and salt. Add sifted ingredients alternately with buttermilk to creamed mixture. Toss rhubarb with 1 tablespoon flour and stir into batter. Spoon batter into buttered 9 X 13 inch pan and smooth the surface. Blend together 1/4 cup butter or margarine, cinnamon and brown sugar; sprinkle evenly over batter. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes.

I haven't tried this, but intend to soon. Hope this is what she is looking for. Sounds yummy!
Eileen from WNY

A request was made for rhubarb bread. Try this one:

Rhubarb Bread
1- 1/2 c. (firmly packed) brown sugar
2/3 c melted butter
1 egg
1 c. sour milk or buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp soda
2-1/2 c. flour
1-1/2 cup diced rhubarb
1/2 c chopped nuts
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Combine brown sugar and 2/3 cups butter. Stir in egg, sour milk, and
vanilla; mix well. Sift soda and flour together; stir into butter mixture. Stir in rhubarb and nuts. Pour into 2 well-greased loaf pans. Combine remaining ingredients with 1 tablespoon melted butter; sprinkle over top. Bake in 325-degree oven for about 40 minutes or until done. Do not overbake. Let stand for 2 or 3 minutes. Remove from pan, cool on rack.
Cats

Hi Nancy and everybody in Nancyland. This is not a recipe or food request or reply. I just want to address Nancy in Virginia Beach, Virginia, real quick, if it's ok to go off the real purpose of the newsletter for just a moment.

Nancy, in Va. Bch., my hubby and I go to Virginia Beach every year. We love it there. We've been going there for close to 20 years now. We missed a couple of years, for one reason or another, but it's been our vacation place for all these years. We go in September. Used to be for a week, then for 2 weeks, now, as of last year, we "live there" for the month of September. I envy you, making Va. Beach your home, but am happy that we're able to spend a whole month there, once a year. I'd love to chat a bit about it, if you'd like to. Nancy, (of the newsletter), please feel free to give my email address to Nancy of Va. Beach, if she requests it. And I'm sorry for making this letter so long, and going off the subject. I promise to be good now. LOL
Cheryl, Ohio

Hi Nancy, I hope you're all settled in your new home. Again, I want to say thanks for all the work and dedication you put into the newsletter. This is in response to Susan, New Braunfels, Tx. (May 18).

She requested the info on how to do symbols using the keyboard. If you recall, I had asked and corresponded about how to do them awhile back. Well, I saved the info, and here is what I have.

Be sure to use the number pad on the right of the keyboard.
Press and hold down the alt key, and type in the following:
171=½
167=º (also 0176=°)
155=¢
172=¼
0190=¾

Again, I want to thank all those who helped me with this, when I requested it..
Cheryl, Ohio

Hi Nancy, Siggy, Ditto and everyone in Nancyland. Nancy, so glad to hear how happy Siggy and Ditto are with their new home and new friends. I know you are glad you made the move. Here are some cake recipes that I make and they are scrumptious.
Betty in MD

Better Than S.e.x Cake
1 box Duncan Hines Yellow Pudding Cake Mix
15-1/2 oz. can crushed pineapple
1 cup sugar
1 (6 oz.) package instant vanilla pudding
3 medium bananas, sliced
1 medium container Cool Whip
1 cup coconut
1 cup chopped nuts
2-3/4 cup milk

Bake cake as directed in a greased 9x13-inch pan. Boil pineapple and sugar for 5 minutes in saucepan on top of stove. Poke holes in cake to let pineapple mixture drain into warm cake. Let this cool. Mix pudding using all of the milk. Let set. Then spread over cake. Slice the bananas over pudding. Spread Cool Whip over sliced bananas. Sprinkle coconut and nuts over the Cool Whip. Keep refrigerated.

Chocolate Sour Cream Pound Cake
1 cup butter or margarine (softened)
2 cups sugar
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
6 large eggs
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup cocoa
1 (8 oz.) carton sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
powdered sugar (optional)

Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer about 2 minutes or until soft and creamy. Gradually add sugars, beating at medium speed, 5 to 7 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating just until yellow disappears. Combine flour, baking soda and cocoa. Add to creamed mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix at lowest speed just until blended after each addition. Stir in vanilla. Spoon batter into a greased and floured 10-inch tube pan. Bake at 325° for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from pan. Sprinkle with powdered sugar (optional).

Note: If you do not want the chocolate in the pound cake, leave out the 1/2 cup cocoa and do not add it when adding the flour and baking soda.

Raw Apple Nut Cake
2-1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups sugar
1 cup chopped nuts
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup Wesson oil
2 eggs
3 cups diced raw apples

Cream sugar and oil together. Sift flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon together. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Fold in apples and nuts. Spread in pan that has been greased and floured. Bake at 350° for one hour.

Apple Pie Cake
1/4 cup margarine, softened
3/4 to 1 cup sugar
1 egg or 2 egg whites
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 Tablespoons hot water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups peeled, diced cooking apples
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Cream margarine; add sugar gradually, beating well at medium speed of an electric mixer. Add egg or egg whites; beat until blended. Combine flour, salt and cinnamon; mix well. Add to creamed mixture; beat at low speed until smooth. Stir in water and vanilla. Fold in apples and pecans. Spoon into greased and floured 9-inch pie plate. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until wooden pick comes out clean. Serve warm or cold. This compact cake has a moist texture.
Betty in MD

Sorry to hear that your sister , Phyllis passed away. If she is like I am, I know if I died at my computer, I'd die happy! I will miss the contributions that she has made to the site.

Best wishes to you and yours.
Phyllis Knipp--Baker, Mt