Grandma Benson's Crescent Cookies

 1 c butter

1/2 c icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 c flour

1/4 tsp salt

2 c finely chopped pecans or walnuts

Cream butter and add sugar gradually. Beat until real fluffy. Add vanilla. Sift flour and salt; add to creamed mixture. Fold in the nuts.

Take 1 tbsp dough and shape into a crescent. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 325F for 30 minutes. 

While warm, roll them in icing sugar. 

Cauliflower Chili (Instant Pot)

• 
  
  I was searching online for recipes using cauliflower and green pepper and came across one that sounded good and would be fast with the instant pot. Everything on the ingredients list wasn't available in the kitchen, so I made do with what was here and it turned out fabulous; I'll be making it again. 
• I can't say I followed the instructions for setting the instant pot exactly either; I don't use it often enough to be confident and it doesn't do what I want when it comes to setting the timer; the last two times I used it, I ended up just unplugging it when I wanted it to stop cooking. So I've left most of the original recipe instructions here, and added the link below so you can see the original ingredients and all the other goodlooking recipes posted there. I've bookmarked the page for myself; there are quite a few I might try. 

INGREDIENTS

• 1 tbsp butter 
• I tbsp oil
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1/2 cup onion, chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp freshly grated ginger
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp ground chili
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 19-ounce can diced tomatoes with their juice 
• 1 cup tomato sauce
• 1 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp sweet teriyaki sauce
• 1 small cauliflower head, cut into florets (about 4 cups florets)
• 3 carrots, sliced thin

---

1. "Set the Instant Pot to sauté. Add the oil. Once hot, add the onion, garlic, and ginger. Cook for 3-4 minutes, or until the onions start to caramelize and become soft. Add the turmeric, chili, cumin, and salt. Continue to cook for another 2 minutes, stirring regularly to make sure it doesn’t burn. Add a couple of tablespoons of water and scrape the bottom to make sure nothing is sticking to it, this will prevent the Instant Pot from giving you a 'burn' message.
2. Add the tomatoes and sauce, honey, teriyaki sauce, carrots and cauliflower. Secure the lid and close the vent to Sealing. Press the Pressure Cook button and adjust the time to 2 minutes. The Instant Pot will take about 10 minutes to come to pressure, then cook under pressure for 2 minutes.
3. Once the program is finished and you have heard the beeps, wait 1 minute and release the pressure. 
4. If your diced tomatoes don’t have much juice, add 1/2 cup of water."

Original recipe:
https://fullofplants.com/instant-pot-cauliflower-tikka-masala/

But really, what's the reason for using the instant pot for this? Ten minutes to power up to pressure cook, three minutes to cook, for a total of 13 minutes if you don't include the time it takes to release the pressure so you can open the pot. On top of the stove in a regular pot this could be cooked in a half-hour. You don't have to lug the heavy instant pot off a shelf and find a place to park it and plug it in. I will try this in the ordinary way and see if the instant pot made a difference. Maybe the flavours meld together better in the I.P. because two minutes of pressure-cooking are equivalent to stewing for a longer period. 

Noodle Curry

8 oz (or 250g, or 3-1/3 cups) medium egg noodles, uncooked
2 tsp salt
Boiling water

Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the package. I often skip the salt.

3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
1-and-1/2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1-and-1/2 c milk

1/2 c sour cream

Melt butter, mix in flour, curry, second amount of salt, and pepper. Stir in milk till sauce boils and thickens.

Stir in sour cream, then mix sauce with noodles. Voila, eat it now! 

*Original recipe from Jean Pare's Company's Coming Pasta cookbook.

Russian Borscht

Click image to enlarge

Give me this kind of borscht any day! Fabulous.

Cracker Jack Cookies

I didn't use white sugar (added all brown sugar instead) and didn't have any coconut, so added an extra half-cup each of the cereal and the oatmeal. Normally I don't buy Rice Krispies but lately there was something else I wanted to make that called for them and I needed to use the rest of the box, so these cookies were a start. I rolled these into little balls and then flattened them with a fork, but I bet they'd be quite nice dropped from a spoon, as the recipe recommends.