Vegetarian Loaf and Family Recipes

If you haven't entered my 2 year blog anniversary giveaway you can click HERE to do so!

Growing up I was surrounded by vegetarianism. Mom tended to make vegetarian meals often although she still made the basic meat/potato/veggie meal. Back then Dad wasn't too keen on eating vegetarian however now, he basically eats vegetarian when at home. This loaf pictured above is a loaf that I always looked forward to eating. Sometimes mom would even put chopped walnuts in it. I totally forgot about doing that or I would have done it when I made this recipe because I really love it with the nuts!

Like many of the other recipe cards there are no directions. Apparently everyone just "knew" how to mix and bake. lol. What I do:

• I don't use grapenuts. Never have. I always use Special K or Wheaties
• I only use evaporated milk if I have it and I use fat free. Otherwise I just use regular skim milk.
• You can substitute egg replacement (like the Morningstar farm egg substitute) for the eggs. This time I didn't because I didn't have any.
• If you don't have George Washington Broth which is a meat free mix, you can substitute the Better than Bouillon (which is what I have in my fridge all the time). This however is not meat free unless you get the vegetable one. I keep vegetarian, chicken and beef in my fridge at all times.
  
• I don't use oleo. I am a butter girl all the way. I use unsalted butter whenever I make anything unless a recipe calls for salted butter.
• I bake at 350 until browned on top and crispy on the edges. Anywhere between 45-60 minutes. It took about 40 minutes for half the recipe.
  

I knew Grumpy would not touch this for two reason. It is called Cottage Cheese Loaf and its "vegetarian". Even if I called it vegetarian loaf he wouldn't eat it. He's all about meat and potatoes!
I am submitting this to the Family Recipes Event. This event is hosted by myself, Laura of The Spiced Life and Lynda of Lynda's Recipe Box. Please send your recipes to me at grumpyshoneybunch at yahoo dot com. To view the guidelines for this event click HERE.
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Celebrating the 2 year mark with a giveaway!

How would you like to win a box of these chocolates? St. Lawrence Chocolates are so very yummy - and they are handmade right in the shop in Potsdam, NY! I am addicted to the sugar shack, I love the dark chocolate peppermint and the cranberry filled dark chocolate. I also love the merlot truffle. I could eat a whole box of 12 all by myself easily.

.... a pound of Jernabi Coffee!! Jernabi Coffee my favorite place to go for coffee in Potsdam, NY. Chris and I have gone there for lunch before and had coffee (he gets smoothies) for lunch. I love it so much and proclaim that I love it so often that my friends have bought it for me as a gift and have given me gift certificates to get my lattes at the shop.

and....this book on napkins and napkin folding (a really awesome book by the way!)

My 2 year blog anniversary was on December 28, 2009. So hard to believe its been two years already!

To enter the giveaway you need to do the following:

• Subscribe to my e-mail recipe club by filling out the form to the right. There are perks to being in my recipe club. You can read about them by clicking HERE.
  
• Leave me a comment telling me what chocolate/truffle flavors would be your choice. Click HERE for their website.
  
• Also tell me what you would like to try for coffee. Click HERE to see what they have to offer.
• I will give you an extra entry if you tweet (make sure to include @GrumpysHoneyB), post the giveaway on Facebook, or put a link on your blog to this giveaway and let me know you have done so.
  

Deadline to enter giveaway will be Saturday, January 9, 2009 by 6 PM EST.

St. Lawrence Chocolates and Jernabi Coffee are not giving me anything for sending you to their sites. I am sending you to their sites because in my opinion they are excellent quality products and I want to share a piece of them with you.

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Clone of a Cinnabon

Just a reminder that you still can sign up for my Recipe E-club and enter the first contest (deadline is Jan 21, 2010) by filling out the form on the right. To read about what you will get from this club click HERE.

Sunday's are normally pancake days in our home. My favorite pancake recipe to follow is on allrecipes.com and is called Fluffy Pancakes. I ended up making these on Saturday this last weekend and Sunday I made these cinnamon rolls in the photos. I have always loved homemade cinnamon rolls and the craving hits after I saw Mindi's post on her blog Mindika Moments of her Grandmother's cinnamon rolls. Once I saw those rolls, I knew I had to make some.

Grumpy was still sleeping when I threw this in the bread machine to start the dough. By the time he was out of bed I had the rolls in the oven. It takes about 3 hours from start to finish to make these (yes, I was up at 5 AM on a Sunday morning). I halved the recipe because I didn't want a huge amount of cinnamon rolls in the house calling my name. Right now there are only 6 left. Grumpy had two while I had one. These rolls had great reviews on allrecipes.com - 5 stars with over 3,000 reviews. Can't go wrong there. For the recipe click HERE.

Oh! Make sure you come back tomorrow. I will be announcing my 2 year blog anniversary giveaway and will have some special gifts!
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Spaghetti & Meatballs and E-recipe Club!

My first email is going out today for my E-recipe Club! There will be some very special features to my e-recipe club that you will only be able to get there. If you subscribe to my E-recipe club you will be able to enjoy the following features:

• Ask Grumpy! Each newsletter I will choose one of your questions to ask Grumpy and will give you his response! (questions must be in relation to the theme of my blog)
  

• I will include some subscriber exclusive recipes or reviews of recipes on a monthly basis.

• There will be subscriber exclusive contest and special prizes on a regular basis.

We are starting out with a really great contest and super special prize so I hope you will sign up to join us! You can sign up by filling out the form to the right of this post!

Now, lets talk about last night's dinner.....

Growing up I did not like pasta. I don't know if it was the pasta or the sauce, but I wanted nothing to do with it. Meatballs were ok, but I wanted them by themselves or not at all. Over the last 5 years I have changed. Pasta has become something I love and pasta sauce? I can't get enough. I love all kinds of sauces, tomato, cream, peanut, butter garlic? I'll take it please!

I had decided it was time to make spaghetti and meatballs. Since I have never made a Rachel Ray recipe I decided I would try hers. The reviews were really great so I figured I had a super winner. I hate to say I was disappointed. While it was good it was not the best I have ever had and I don't get how it has a 5 star rating. The pasta sauce I was not happy with. I immediately knew it was going to be "runny" and Grumpy would not like it. I was going to use tomato paste to thicken it up but was out so I added a can of tomato sauce and simmered the sauce until it had thickened some. Also, I knew the chunks of tomato were too big for Grumpy so I used my immersion blender and smoothed the sauce out some.

As it stands, right now, my favorite meatball and pasta sauce recipe is Pam's recipe from For the Love of Cooking and I will stick to that one for now. If you try Rachel's recipe out, let me know what you thought! You can find her recipe by clicking HERE.

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A New Year

My Uncle Lyle and me Jan. 1, 2010

Most of my life on Christmas Eve our family would go to my Grandma and Grandpa Law's home to see my dad's family. My dad had a big family. He had 5 sisters and 1 brother - and we would see most all of them on Christmas Eve. Most of the time we had snow - and lots of it! Us kids would go outside and goof off in the snow throwing snowballs at each other then come back in to warm up and eat the goodies that everyone had brought.

Aunt Thea and me, Jan 1. 2010

After both grandma & grandpa were gone it dwindled out. I remember going to my cousin Shirley's home when the kids were about 9 & 10 and that was the last Christmas Eve I spent with the Law family. Now, every year when we get to this time of year I have this deep heartache because things aren't the way they used to be. I miss my Christmas Eve visits with my dad's family. I know things change, but sometimes you don't want it to. If I could freeze time I would have my grandparents back and I would be spending Christmas Eve with them again along with the rest of my family.

One very special man - my Uncle Lyle

I decided it was time to visit my Uncle Lyle & Aunt Thea. The last time I saw them was at their 50th Wedding Anniversary party which I think was almost 3 years ago. I've been thinking about my Uncle Lyle a lot lately. He has the kindest heart and he would do anything he could to help you out. I will never forget him bringing firewood to our home when my first husband and I were married and I was pregnat with Justin. He was working on my Dad's farm with him and on his way home he brought wood with him on the back of his truck and unloaded it all into our garage so we would have heat in our home. Dana was working the afternoon shift, so Uncle Lyle unloaded that whole truckload of wood for me and then proceeded to check my fire to make sure I would be warm while I waited for Dana to get home.


I wanted to take some kind of treat when I visited. I had bananas that were needing to be used so I made some Banana Crumb Muffins to give to my Aunt & Uncle. You know, us foodies, we don't like to go anywhere without taking food with us to give to other people! They enjoyed the muffins while we were there visiting. Uncle Lyle got his fiddle out and played with it some. It reminded me of Christmas Eve when Grandpa would pull his fiddle out to play and I enjoyed every second I was there. This visit helped me some, but it doesn't mean I'm over it. It just makes me want to go see them and my other aunts & uncles more often.

The Banana Crumb Muffin is a recipe I found on Allrecipes.com. When I make banana muffins, this is the only recipe I ever use. I love how it is a light muffin - not dense in any way. Also, the crumb topping is so good that I secretly think about taking the top of the muffin off and leaving the rest! ;o) Aunt Thea told me it was the best muffin she ever ate. Of course, that pleased me right to pieces!

If you want to make these muffins, you can find the recipe by clicking HERE.
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