Sounds like a fun story about the coffee. Can you share it?

Theresa

Laurel did the meatloaf. I think the secret is the peach BBQ sauce. It was delicious.

I brought the soup, the recipe is take all your end of the season vegetables from the garden, heat through, then can till needed.

Here are my cookie recipes.

Almond Cookie Mice

1 cup butter or margarine at room temp

1 cup light brown sugar

1 large egg

2 teaspoonful almond extract
1 teaspoonful vanilla extract
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
for decoration: peanut halves, coarsely chopped raisins, red/black licorice laces in 3 inch lengths


Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer till fluffy. Beat in egg and extracts. Gradually beat in flour till blended. Dough will be stiff. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour or till well chilled. Heat oven to 325 degrees and have cookie sheets ready. Shape rounded tablespoonful of dough into 1 ¼ inch balls. Taper each ball at one end into a teardrop shape and flatten on one side. Place on un-greased cookie sheet flat side down, 2 inches apart. Press in sides of balls to “raise backs” of mice (they will spread out slightly as they bake). Gently push 2 peanut halves in each for ears and 2 pieces of raisins for eyes. With a wooden toothpick make a 1 inch deep hole at the tail end. Bake 9-12 minutes until bottoms are lightly browned. Remove to rack and insert licorice tails into toothpick holes. Cool completely. Makes about 45 mice.

Oatmeal Cookies

1 Cup butter flavor Crisco

1 Cup light brown sugar

1 Cup white sugar

1 Tablespoon vanilla

2 large eggs

1 ½ Cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon soda

1 teaspoon salt

3 Cups quick oats

Preheat oven to 375. Cream together shorting, sugars and vanilla. Add eggs, flour soda and salt and mix well. Add oats slowly and mix well. Drop on greased cookie sheet and bake 10-15 minutes. I store in zip loc bags. Makes about 3 ½ dozen.

Beverly, Your soup was good and sounds like my Sharon's pantry/fridge/freezer glorified soup from leftovers. lol I really liked the flavor of the mice cookies, so think I'll make those without the decorations. :-)

Jackie, I went to the store today. Guess what was in my cart. lol

Oh Theresa, Laurel had to rescue us. Teresa and I are short...couldn't even see into the top of the coffee maker but we wanted to help. Teresa filled the carafe with water to pour into the coffee maker but missed the reservoir and poured it into the area where the coffee filter and coffee go.....which were not there, so it went straight through the hole to the bottom of the coffee maker and onto the counter and floor. Laurel was standing by the stove and took over since she could see how inept we were. We wiped up our mess and I slunk out of the kitchen. :-)

Sharon, we have all been there. I have forgotten to put water in and couldn't understand why there was no coffee. I can just hear all the laughter

Theresa

I don’t really have a meatloaf recipe. I use ground angus beef from Claybrook Farms - one of the larger ones in Tennessee. The grind is good and it’s not too fatty.

I add egg, about one per lb. of meat, bread crumbs, and chopped onion. Sautéed mushrooms and green pepper are also good.

I topped it with peach barbecue sauce from Jones Peach Farm in Millington, Tennessee. We buy as much food as possible from local producers at our farmers market.

All of the food was so yummy!

Here is the

Almond Chex Mix - aka "Crack"

Large box Chex Cereal

2 Cups slivered almonds

2 Cups cahews

2 Cups Craisins

1 Cup Karo Syrup

1 Cup White Sugar

3/4 Cup butter

1 tablespoon almond extract

Bring syrup, sugar and butter to a boil until light yellow (clear, not cloudy)

Take off heat and add extract

Pour over rest of ingredients

Spread out on waxed paper and let cool for several hours.

Sue

It's unlikely that I will ever attend one of the retreats, as I am in Texas. I have a great recipe that is so easy and good that it deserves to be shared. It could be pre-prepped by cooking the meat, onion and bell pepper ahead and freezing it. Then, you could just dump the whole thing in a pot and heat for 30 minutes or so.

Barbara's Taco Soup

Makes about 18 cups (8 oz.) of soup

2 lbs. lean ground beef or turkey

1 medium onion, diced

1 green pepper, diced

2 cans diced tomatoes with green chilis (If Rotel is too hot, you can use plain diced tomatoes or one can of each)

1 can whole kernel corn (or hominy)

3 assorted cans of beans (black, pinto, pinto with jalapeno, kidney)

1 can cream style corn

1 1/2 packages of taco seasoning (I use Old El Paso)

1 ½ packages Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix

3 - 4 cups water

Brown meat with onion and pepper in a large Dutch oven or soup pot (drain this if you don't use a lean beef) . Add the veggies (including liquid), except the cream style corn. Add the 3 cups of water and seasoning, mix well. Bring to a boil. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add more water if it looks too thick. Add the cream style corn, cook 5 minutes longer. Serve.

(Notes: Sometimes you may have to add up to a cup more water. The original recipe suggested chili beans, but I didn’t care for them in the soup as they generally have vinegar in them. If I’m not being good, I serve it with Fritos, sour cream, diced onions and shredded four cheese blend. If I’m being good, I don’t buy Fritos.)

This freezes well and is perfect for those nights you don't want to cook.

I found this recipe on the internet many years ago. I've tweaked it by increasing the meat from one pound to two and increasing the seasoning from one package to 1 1/2. So, if it doesn't suit your taste, you can untweak it.

bkay

Thank you, Laurel. I'm going to have to play around with a DIY peach BBQ sauce because I really enjoyed your meatloaf. Sue, What little bit I allowed myself to have of your yummy mix, I wish I could have had more. I'll keep your recipe for family times. Which kind of Chex did you use? Rice? bkay, I can see that this soup could end up being a favorite in my household and it's my kind of soup (I love hominy)! But, I might end up calling it Dump Soup because of all the cans of ingredients going into it. lol I have to take advantage of any cooking frenzies that come my way and this will be perfect for being able to freeze for future meals. Thank you.

Bkay, that taco soup does sound good. I love having things frozen for when it's just me to cook for.

There are several of us with extra machines we can bring so if you ever want to fly over and join us for retreat we can set you up. We can even give you projects to work on if you would like.