Nurturing Cuisine

Pumpkin Cookies Recipe

We found this Pumpkin Cookie recipe in Great Grandma's cookbook.  It was scribbled on a small sheet of paper with little instructions with "moderate oven" at the bottom.  We made them and sent them to a family member stationed on an air craft carrier and they were a hit with him and his friends.


Sarah chose to alter it a bit by reducing the cinnamon to 1/2 tsp. and adding 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice.  They are a soft cookie that Grandma enjoys as they are easy to chew -- great for toddlers, too.

Oven Baked Boy Scout Packet Potatoes

We love grilling Boy Scout Packet Potatoes outside.  We wanted a way to replicate this recipe in our weekly menu cooked indoors.  Too often when we made it the traditional way, wrapped in foil, a small tear would cause butter to drip on the bottom of the oven.  We thought we'd try wrapping them and using the 9 x 13 pan to hold them, but then decided why not just bake them directly in the pan?  Here is our indoor Oven Baked Boy Scout Packet Potatoes Recipe version.

Ready for the oven.
As you can see you can peel the potatoes or leave the peels on.  Also, some of

Rich Chocolate Brownies Recipe

This Rich Chocolate Brownies Recipe came from my desire to make brownies from what I had on hand.  I needed to use cocoa and went searching for a recipe and these are the ones I found.  I copied the recipe and can't remember for sure where it came from but it was in a Brownie and Bar Cooking booklet by Pillsbury.  I am not sure if Elizabeth changed it at all, we usually do, but here is what we do.

Rich Chocolate Brownies with cocoa.


Check out Elizabeth's post of Step By Step Chocolate Brownies Tutorial for a

Bread Machine Wheat Hamburger Bun Recipe

Dad makes a mean hamburger!  But we never were satisfied with store bought buns for them so Elizabeth took to making up a Bread Machine Wheat Hamburger Bun Recipe to make his burgers even better.  Here is her final version.  They are a hearty, firm bun that holds up to even all the condiments Dad piles on his burger!

These will easily double in size and be sure to smash them quite flat as they will round up nicely when risen and baked -- otherwise they want to turn into balls.  Bake on greased or non-stick cookie sheets or use parchment paper.

You can read the review of the West Bend Hi-Rise Bread Machine we wrote earlier and check out all our  Bread Machine Recipes.



Check after a couple minutes of kneading and add flour or water as needed for proper texture - should be quite stiff and not stick to your finger when poked.  Add small amounts at a time—1 or 2 teaspoons.

Bread Machine Wheat French Bread Recipe

We love French Bread with many dishes from Beef Stew to Lasagna Style Pasta Bake so we always keep a loaf or two in the freezer.  Here is our Bread Machine French Bread Recipe.  We let the machine knead it, but we shape it and bake in a conventional oven.  This is a heavier, moisture texture than store bakery bread and it is important to be sure to cook it long enough -- better to err on the side of too long.  It is delicious for Party Sub Sandwiches, too.

Mini loaves shaped & ready to rise.
Bake on greased or non-stick cookie sheets or use parchment paper.

Bread Machine Wheat Dinner Rolls Recipe

Great Grandma's rolls were popular at any family gathering.  She taught Elizabeth how to make them when she was about eight and she made them often.  I on the other hand could not get them light and fluffy, so I left all bread making to Elizabeth.  Until we got our West Bend Hi-Rise Bread Machine. Now I let it knead the dough and I bake in a conventional oven.  Here is our Bread Machine Wheat Dinner Rolls Recipe.

Great Grandma used just white flour, we use a combination of fresh ground whole wheat and bread flour.  They can be shaped any way you like:  mini-rolls, round rolls, clover leaf rolls, crescent, etc.  Bake on greased or non-stick cookie sheets or use parchment paper.  Great Grandma always cooked hers in "pie tins."

You'll notice it says 2 to 3 cups bread flour -- begin with 2 and let it start kneading and add a little more at a time until the dough seems right.  The humidity in the air makes a huge difference on how these turn out.



Check after a couple minutes of kneading and add flour or water as needed for proper texture - should be quite stiff and not stick to your finger when poked.  Add small amounts at a time—1 or 2 teaspoons.

You can read the review of the West Bend Hi-Rise Bread Machine we wrote earlier and check out all our  Bread Machine Recipes. We love using the machine to do the kneading for us and we then shape and bake.

Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread ~ Bread Machine Recipe

We eat a LOT of sandwich bread in our family.  We have found the easiest way to keep up with having fresh Whole Wheat bread in the house is to use the West Bend 2.5 Pound Hi-Rise Bread Machine.  This is our Bread Machine Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread Recipe that Elizabeth developed.


It is not 100% Whole Wheat as we have not been able to develop a recipe for that to use in this machine.  We are willing to give up the 100% whole wheat in

West Bend 2.5 Pound Hi-Rise Bread Machine Review

We make all of our own sandwich bread and have for years.  Originally by hand, then with a Bosch mixer and for the last two years we have used the West Bend Hi-Rise Bread Machine.  It makes nice large, square loaves perfect to slice for sandwiches.

West Bend Hi-Rise Bread Machine Review and whole wheat bread

We use a combination of store bought bread flour and our freshly ground whole white wheat flour:  approximately 2 cups of the whole wheat and 1 1/2 cups of the bread flour per loaf.  The machine kneads it just fine and it almost always turns out tall and towards the light side.  It is not as light as white bread, but it does not turn out as what we refer to as "health food" bread:  it is not sticky or heavy.

West Bend 2.5 Pound Hi-Rise Bread Machine Review

The ingredients are measured and layered in the pan in order given in recipes.

West Bend 2.5 Pound Hi-Rise Bread Machine ingredients
The yeast is added last.

Each recipe has a setting on the machine and it is easily chosen from the list on the machine.  It also has a no-bake setting so you can use it for kneading.

West Bend 2.5 Pound Hi-Rise Bread Machine

Square Pan.
Because of health issues we cannot knead manually so we also use the West Bend Hi-Rise Bread Machine to knead the following and bake in a conventional oven:

  • Dinner Rolls
  • Pizza Crust
  • Bread Sticks
  • Hamburger Buns
  • French Bread
One of two beaters.
We use this machine every day, often more than once and are very pleased with it.  We don't appreciate the holes left in the bottom of the loaves by the beaters when they hang on tightly at times and pull out extra bread.  But that is a minor issue.  I will be sharing our recipes over the next couple of weeks.

Whole Wheat bread baked in the West Bend 2.5 Pound Hi-Rise Bread Machine
Whole Wheat bread baked in the West Bend 2.5 Pound Hi-Rise Bread Machine
Check out all our  Bread Machine Recipes.

Nut Cookie Recipe

We took the original Nestle Toll House Cookie Recipe and tweaked it by reducing the sugar and adding a bit of whole wheat flour.  When using Chocolate Chips we have won a blue ribbon at the county fair.  This is our Nut Cookie Recipe version.

The color in this image is a bit wonky, sorry about that.
We prefer walnuts over pecans in these.


Pumpkin Muffin Recipe

Moist and spicy Pumpkin Muffin Recipe.  We substitute about 1/3 of the flour with whole wheat.  The original recipe was from a Betty Crocker cookbook, I believe, and we tweaked it a bit.  Here is where you can find Elizabeth's Step By Step Pumpkin Muffins Instructions.


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