Wednesday Wars Cream Puffs

We made cream puffs in honor of reading "Wednesday Wars".

(They are on pg 137 of Grandma A's cook book) I have made 1/2 a batch before and they work fine.

They are easy. Behold:

1 C water

1/2 C butter or shortening (choose butter!)

1C flour

1/2 tsp salt

4 eggs

Some kind of good, gooey stuff and opptional powdered sugar.

So you heat the butter (good choice!) and water and salt to a boiling point and add the flour all at once, stiring quickly (it says "vigorously", but sheesh, don't hurt anything). It will thicken quick, but keep beating it and stiring it till it leaves the sides of your pan and balls up around your wooden spoon. Let it cool slightly, then beat eggs in one at a time (doing all 4 at once is hard!), beating each in well. You can use a machine- it makes it lighter.

Then drop by spoonfuls (the bigger the spoonful, the bigger the

puff) onto greased baking sheet. Spread 'em out - they puff.

Bake at 400* for 30 min (this is a lie, as mine were too dark by min 18). They just need to be dry and browned. Cool, cut the tops off, gut them if necessary, and fill with pudding, whipped cream, jam, a bit of syrup, sugared strawberries, etc. etc. They aren't all that great by themselves (no sugar to speak of), but they are the vessel to hold all the other goodness. We used instant choc pudding. Very nice.

Curried Pumpkin Mushroom Soup

This soup is easy but tastes fancy.

1 package mushrooms, sliced
1/2 c. chopped onions
2 T butter
2 T flour
1 T curry powder
2 small cans chicken broth
1 15 oz can pumpkin
1 T honey
1 c milk or cream
pinch of nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

Cook onions and mushrooms in butter until soft. Add flour and curry. Cook over low heat for 5 min, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add broth, stirring to mix. Stir in pumpkin, honey, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Simmer for 15 min. Add milk/cream.

Avoid boiling when reheating.

You ate WHAT? (Collard Greens)

4 strips of bacon, sliced into 1/2" pieces
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3 dashes hot sauce
1/4 c. apple cider vinegar
1 c. chicken broth or water
2 lbs collard greens, stems removed and sliced into strips


Cook bacon, onion, garlic together in pan. Combine other ingredients and add to pan along with greens. Cook 10-15 minutes until greens are soft.