My Eastern Kentucky Reunion Journal

For those who like iced tea...try this this new Frappuccino iced tea... Crazy for a tea treat? How do you take your tea.  Plain?  A little milk and sugar?  Try taking it with chocolate, whipped cream and cookies! Give all these sweet & tasty ingredients a spin in the blender with some ice and behold, the infamous mocha cookie crumble Frappuccino tea. Is it a tea?  Is it a dessert?  Who cares!  All we know is that it's sooo good.  Whip up one today, and you'll see why the homemade version is very good. RECIPE: 1  c  ice cubes 1/2 c milk 6 T  strong brewed tea 1 to 2 T dark chocolate syrup 1 to 2 T vanilla syrup 1 T dark chocolate chips GARNISH:  chocolate flavored whipped cream, chocolate sandwich cookie crumbs Place in blender.  Add remaining ingredients except garnish.  Process until smooth and ice is crushed.  Pour into tall glasses.  Top with a dollop of whipped cream and sprinkle of cookie crumbs.  Makes one to two servings. Enjoy!

Welcome to Ida's Ky Mountain Kitchen Recipes... What are recipe cards, recipes on scraps of paper in a kitchen drawer or old cookbooks with notes in the margin? These are more than just recipes. These are heritage recipes ~ our links with our past and our connections to special people and special events are tied to those scraps  of paper.  At Ida's Ky Mountain Kitchen Recipes we are dedicated to the preservation of memories and old recipes. As we move  through our fast paced, fast food world, we are at risk of losing touch with the special moments when we shared a special recipe ~ a special meal ~ with a special person. On of my earliest memories is of my children's Father making steak and gravy for us.  Oh, so tasty. I think of it often and still crave it today. Send Us Your Heritage Recipe You can join us in the preservation of these heritage recipes and memories by submitting recipes that have been passed on to you by someone special in your life.  Along with

Twin Mountain Muffins Ingredients: 1/4  cup butter 1/4  cup sugar 1  egg 3/4  cup milk 2  cups flour 3  t  baking powder Cream the butter.  Add sugar and egg. Sift baking powder and flour and add to the other ingredients.  Add the milk. Stir until well-blended.  Pour batter into buttered  muffin pan and bake 15 to 20 minutes. Then you can dig right in! These are the easiest, most delicious muffins. They go with many main dishes--pinto beans, spinch with vinegar, fish--and they disappear very, very quickly. OTRTE

Pumpkin Nut Pie Ingredients: 1  cup prepared pumpkin (canned or fresh puree) 1  cup brown sugar 1/4  t  nutmeg 1/4  t  cinnamon 1  t  salt 1/2  cup chopped nut meats 2 cups milk 2  T  flour 2  eggs 1/2  cup grated coconut Mix ingredients, pour into pastry lined plate. Bake for 5 minutes at 400 degrees, then 40 minutes at 350 degrees. Olde-Time Recipes To Enjoy ~ OTRTE

Betty's Table for an Autumn Dinner... Chandelier over table makes a soft cozy glow.  Fall garland of faux apples hides the brass on dome.  There are four glass globs with champagne pink border, better seen at  bottom left of picture. Our sunporch is decorated to last all season, and creates the seasons unparalleled beauty by inviting the outdoors in.  By leveraging colorful fall leaves, pumpkins, berries, corn, and more creates fall and Halloween decor' that will last us through Thanksgiving.                                 I'm always redecorating (over and over again), so what you see today is probably not what you'll see next week!  Many things are projects that my hubby, Ed and I work on together.

                           What is your favorite tea?                                        Mine is walnut.                   Please leave your comments below.                                                                      Thanks,                                                                         Betty

     Dear Tea Friends,           Cool early mornings lead to lovely FALL days!  Perfect time for getting out and enjoying a morning walk, then treating yourself with a cuppa tea, coffee, cider or  chai latte and a baked pastry or breakfast sandwich.  I'll be looking for you in the morning!                                                                  xo  Betty

     Let's warm up by the fireplace...the weather is surprisingly cool and we need cozy socks and snuggly blankets.  There is no doubt that fall is officially here, which in our household means that Halloween is just around the corner!  My hubby has kindly taken out our boxes of fall and Halloween decorations and I just need to decide where everything goes.  Decorating for fall and Halloween is one of our favorite things to do.                                                                       xo  Betty

A young picture of Ida Mae in Eastern Kentucky... She never used recipes, everything she made was made-from-scratch.   This blog is in memory of my sweet mother, Ida Mae.   xo  Betty                                            When you fill the cup of happiness                                               for others, there will be enough                                            overflowing to fill yours to the brim.

                              The Sweet Taste of Fall...   We are orig0nley from the mountains of Eastern Kentucky, my mother, Ida canned the best Pickled Corn Relish. I found a recipe that may be the way she made it. Mother didn't use recipes, did all canning and cooking by memory. I'm going to try it!   Considered an Eastern European Recipe...once corn started to be cultivated in Europe, there was no looking back.  It has worked it's way into many recipes and Eastern Europeans, picklers extraordinaire, "put up" or canned fresh sweet corn to make the long, dark and cold winters not so miserable, and to remind them of the fresh vegetables they would have once the summer came.   Eastern Kentucky mountain people canned Pickled Corn Relish as a staple. I love it with pinto beans and cornbread.  A tasty treat that I desire often but can't find in grocery stores.  I'll have to "put up" my own.  Hope this recipe tastes the