-Farm News photo by Loretta Krahling
Classic Rhubarb Crisp

Camping season is in full swing. When we went camping years ago, I can remember looking for meal ideas and getting everything ready for our next camping trip at least a week ahead. Being able to explore the community near the campgrounds is always more fun than spending extra time preparing a meal.

Camper’s Goulash may be a good choice. Preparing some of this recipe in advance might also be helpful, such as cooking the meat, onions and macaroni. The rest of the ingredients are pretty easy to put into a Crockpot with the cooked meat, onion, and macaroni. Crockpots are very handy to use when camping.

Camper’s Goulash

Ingredients

1 pound of hamburger, drained

1 cup cooked macaroni

1 medium sized onion

1 green pepper

2 tablespoons oil

1 large can whole tomatoes

1 large can pork and beans

1 large can tomato sauce

1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

In a large pan, brown meat and drain. Add cut up onion and green pepper. Simmer until done. Add whole tomatoes (may be cut into smaller pieces), beans, tomato sauce and cooked macaroni. Add Tabasco sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Heat thoroughly. Salt and pepper to taste. This recipe also works great in a Crockpot.

Classic Rhubarb Crisp

My stepdaughter, Sara, likes to participate in the Wright County Fair open class arts and crafts and horticulture exhibits. She was thrilled when we recently took her out to the fair to see how well she had done on the four entries she had submitted.

To her surprise she had received all blues and purples in her photography/craft entry, two flower entries, garden vegetable entry, and her Classic Rhubarb Crisp entry. I have included her Rhubarb Crisp recipe because there is a lot of rhubarb available this time of year.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 cup granulated sugar

6 cups fresh rhubarb stalks, cut into pieces, soaked for 5 minutes in boiling water

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 1/2 cups quick oats

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Instructions

Melt a tablespoon of butter in a 9-inch baking dish. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk the sugar and cornstarch together. Add the rhubarb and lemon juice, mix well. Spread into a baking dish. Make the topping by mixing the remaining ingredients. Spread over the filling. Bake for 40 minutes. Let cool on the rack after taking it out of the oven. Serve with whipped topping or ice cream. Enjoy.

Pig Pickin’ Cake

You may wonder how this cake got its name. It might be called “Pig Pickin’ Cake” because it’s so delicious, you could easily end up “pigging out.” It is an easy recipe to put together if you are expecting company and feel like serving a refreshing dessert.

Ingredients

1 yellow cake mix

1/2 c. oil

4 eggs

1 can mandarin oranges, drained

1/2 c. chopped walnuts

Topping Ingredients:

1 (15 1/4 oz. ) can crushed pineapple

1 3-ounce package vanilla instant pudding mix

1 large carton whipped topping

Instructions

Prepare cake mix according to the directions, using oil, eggs, and juice drained from oranges. Cut up the oranges and nuts and add to the ingredients, stirring well. Pour into a 9-by-13-inch baking pan. Bake at the temperature designated on the cake mix box. Cool. In a medium bowl, stir together the crushed pineapple with the pineapple juice and the vanilla instant pudding mix. Fold in the whipped topping and spread on top of the cake.

Breakfast Pizza

Recently I cleaned out my refrigerator and realized I had better do something with the extra dozen eggs that friends had given us. I prepared this dish and froze a portion of it. This recipe makes a pretty large size for a two-person household. On a positive note, it sure is handy to be able to go to the freezer and have a dish waiting to be put in the oven for supper.

Ingredients

1 pound pork sausage

1 1/2 tubes crescent rolls

1 1/2 cups frozen hash browns, thawed

1/3 cup milk

1/4 teaspoon pepper

6 to 8 beaten eggs

3/4 teaspoon salt

Parmesan cheese

1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Instructions

Cook and drain sausage. Separate crescent rolls. Place them in a greased 9-by-13-inch pan and press over bottom and up sides to form crust. Spoon sausage over crust. Sprinkle hash browns on sausage. Top with a layer of cheddar cheese. In a bowl, combine milk, pepper, beaten eggs and salt. Pour egg mixture over the other ingredients. Sprinkle the top with Parmesan cheese. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.

Loretta’s Tips

1. Use an ice cream dipper when making meatballs. This will make the meatballs more uniform in size.

2. Bacon will lie flat in the pan if you prick it thoroughly with a fork as it fries. Also, bacon dipped in flour will not shrink.

Loretta Krahling is a columnist with over 38 years of newspaper experience. If you have a favorite recipe you would like to share or have any questions, email her at krahling93@gmail.com.