Theresa's Adaptation of Great Grandma Brunner's Tamale Pie

Great Grandma Brunner's Tamale Pie
Adapted by her Great Granddaughter

Ingredients:

• 1 cup slivered almonds (optional) and a little oil
• 1/2 - 1 lb ground beef
• 1 chopped onion (optional)
• 1 chopped green pepper (optional)
• 3-4 large handfuls of egg noodles
• 3-4 cups water
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 can whole kernel corn
• 1 cup chopped fresh mushrooms (or small can parts and stems) (optional)
• 3 - 5 medium sized beef tamales in large chunks
• 1 can olives chopped (optional)
• 2 - 3 TBSP Worcestershire Sauce
• 1/4 tsp cayanne pepper (optional)
• 1/4 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1-2 cups shredded cheese

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Brown almond slivers in some oil in a large skillet then set aside in the casserole dish.
3. Brown the ground beef, onion, and green pepper in the large skillet.
4. Add the water and egg noodles to the meat, cover, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 - 15 minutes until the egg noodles have sucked up all the water. The meat should be pretty well cooked through.
5. Drain this mixture and put into a 9X13 casserole dish or pyrex pan.
6. Combine with almonds, diced tomatoes (juice and all), corn, mushrooms, tamale chunks, olives, worcestershire sauce, cayanne pepper, paprika, and pepper. Make sure everything is mixed together in the pan without breaking up the tamale chunks too badly.
7. Cover with shredded cheese
8. Bake for 20 - 30 minutes until cheese has melted and contents are bubbling.

I haven't tried this yet, but I think it'll work and I'm going to try it shortly after christmas since I have some tamales I want to use. I'll let you know how it turns out!

Some Notes on the Changes I've made:

• I made some of the ingredients optional for picky eaters.
• I cut the overall cooking time down by at least 45 minutes for the mom who doesn't have time to let dinner cook ALL DAY.
• I stole the idea of cooking the meat with the noodles from hamburger helper's recipes. They always use this shortcut to save on DISHES, EASE, and TIME I've noticed.
• I cut down the amounts of the ingredients so that the end result would be better suited to a smaller family.
• I don't prefer creamed corn so i substituted for whole kernel.

Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies and Butter Frosting

Cookies:
1 pkg (8oz) cream cheese at room temp
1 cup real butter at room temp
1 1/2 cup sugar
3 1/2 cups flour
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. baking powder

1. Cream together cream cheese, butter, sugar, egg, flavorings, and baking powder with a mixer on medium speed until well blended
2. Gradually add flour and mix well
3. Refrigerate overnight
4. Roll dough to about 1/4 inch thickness on lightly floured surface. Cut out cookies.
5. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes

Frosting:
1/3 cup cold real butter (I found out the hard way you don't want to use margarine)
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
Food Coloring

1. Beat butter till fluffy. Gradually add 2 cups of powdered sugar and slowly beat in milk and vanilla
2. Slowly beat in remaining powdered sugar.
3. Add food coloring

This recipe makes soft delicious sugar cookies.

Homemade Pedialite

If I haven't raved about my pediatrician before, let me do so now...he is AWESOME!! Noah has been throwing up today and because of the storm I can't really get anywhere to buy special drinks for him, so he gave me this receipe for some homemade pedialite. It is stuff I usually have on hand anyway and it is really easy to make. I will never buy special "sick" drinks again!

1 quart of water
1 oz. orange juice
1 tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda

Mix them all together and give it in small sips to your sick child.
If your child doesn't like the taste, Dr. Parker said that you could add either a little more o.j. or sugar to sweeten the taste. Isn't he amazing!

Cheeseburger Soup

My friend Stephanie gave me this receipe for a yummy soup that I made last night. It is very hearty, creamy, and delicious! My family loved this meal! It has a lot of good stuff in it (carrots, celery, potatoes, etc.) but you can't really taste it, so it is a great meal for kids. It was a great way to sneak some veggies into Clayton's dinner! This is our new favorite creamy soup!

Ingredients:
1/2 lb. browned hamburger
3/4 c. shredded carrots
1 tsp. dried basil
4 tbsp. butter divided
4 c. peeled diced potatoes
8 oz. Velveeta (cut into cubes)
1/2 tsp. pepper
3/4 c. chopped onion
3/4 c. diced celery
1 tsp. parsley
3 c. chicken broth
1/4 c. flour
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 c. sour cream

Saute onion, carrots, celery, basil, and parsley in 1 tbsp. butter for about 10 minutes. Add broth, potatoes, beef, and bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer about 10-12 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small pan melt 3 tbsp. butter and add flour. Cook and stir about 3-5 min. Add to soup. Bring to a boil, cook about 2min. Reduce heat to low, add velveeta, salt, and pepper. Cook (while stirring) until cheese melts. Remove from heat, stir in sour cream and enjoy!
**I served it with warm homemade bread, this is the PERFECT soup to dip with!**