My Sisters' Cucina

Pretzel Bites

2011-10-27T15:09:00.000-07:00

So, it's been quite some time since we've posted anything. Our families have kept us so busy the last little while. Hopefully we'll be able to get back on track. I just made these awesome pretzel bites that I came across on pinterest. They are so yummy and easy. This website is full of many wonderful recipes. Check it out sometime. Here's a link with pictures of these yummy balls of goodness! http://www.justgetoffyourbuttandbake.com/?p=932

PRETZEL BITES

Texas size Rhodes Frozen roll dough
*as many as you like – each roll makes four bites
I think you could get six small ones from each roll

Take a thawed roll. Cut it in four(or 6) equal sections. Place dough bites on greased sheets. Cover with plastic wrap that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray, and let dough rise until double in size. (about 35-45 minutes) Bring a large pot of water to a gentle boil. When dough has risen, plop about 10 pieces into the boiling water, tossing gently for about 45 seconds. Remove with slotted spoon, and place bites on paper towels to drain slightly. Move bites to greased baking sheets, and bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes or until done and golden brown.

Brush bites with melted butter, sprinkle with Kosher or Sea Salt, garlic and toss in Parmesan cheese. You can also make Cinnamon and Sugar bites. Make a mixture of Cinnamon and sugar: About 1 cup sugar and 1 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon, and mix together well. After you butter the pretzel bites, toss in cinnamon and sugar mixture.

There are a couple dipping sauces that you can find also on the website.

3 Grain Muffins

2010-07-19T09:57:00.000-07:00

We're still here! I take pictures of my food all the time with great intention to post, but I seem to get caught up in the many other things on my list. I wonder if there will ever be a day when I have my whole house organized, in place, and clean all at the same time. Is it actually possible? Anyways... enough of that. Here I am actually posting, so we will make it quick! We love muffins for breakfast. These healthy muffins have a little crunch from the cornmeal and oats, and are perfect with jam! They are delicious! We gobble them up in one morning. My kids love them, and they are healthy! Double bonus!!! I got the recipe from a book called 1 Mix, 100 Muffins by Susanna Tee. It's one of those books with one basic recipe used for 100 different muffins. I have had a good time experimenting, and have enjoyed all the muffins I have made. When I saw these muffins, they were calling my name. We eat a lot of whole wheat at my house, and I love cornmeal in breakfast baking, so I knew these wouldn't disappoint! They are quick to throw together, and are perfect with a side of eggs and fresh fruit!

Three-Grain Muffins

Susanna Tee

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup white flour (I use all wheat)

1 Tbsp baking powder

heaping 1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

heaping 1/4 cup yellow cornmeal

scant 1 cup rolled oats

2 large eggs

1 cup buttermilk

6 Tbsp oil

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Greas 12 cup muffin pan or line with paper liners. Sift together flour and baking powder into a large bowl, adding any bran left in the sifter. Stir in the sugar, cornmeal, and oats.

Lightly beat the eggs in a large pitcher or bowl, then beat in the buttermilk, oil, and vanilla. Make a well in the center of the dry and pour in the beaten wet ingredients. Stir gently until just combined; do not overmix.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pan. Bake for about 20 minutes, until well risen, golden brown, and firm to the touch. Mine took 15 minutes.

Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then serve warm or transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Enjoy!!!

Jumbo "Whatever" Breakfast Cookies

2010-06-11T13:13:00.000-07:00

These breakfast cookies are amazing! I'm sure glad "breakfast" is in the title of the cookies, because then I don't feel guilty for eating a cookie for breakfast! My sister made me some of these beauties just after I had my first child. I loved them so much that I had to have the recipe and I have been making them ever since. They are so tasty. Almost like a granola bar, but in cookie form. They are breakfast cookies because they have Bran Flakes Cereal in them. We love to store them in the freezer and eat them frozen. I usually double my batch so I have plenty to store. Because they are JUMBO, one batch makes 12. I usally do 6 jumbo and do the rest mini for the kids. The dough is super tough and crumbly, so don't be alarmed. You have to really compact your dough balls. What's great about this recipe is the "whatever" part! You can throw in just about "whatever" you want. I always put in oats and craisins. Raisins are wonderful as well. You could throw in some coconut, or even nuts. The possibilities are endless, and delicious! So give em' a try and make it your own "whatever"! They will not disapoint!

Jumbo "Whatever" Breakfast Cookies

1 1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 Tbsp vanilla

*Stir together*

Add:

1 1/2 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

4 cups bran flakes cereal

1/2 cup soft butter

1/4 cup water

1 egg, beaten

1 cup chocolate chips (milk, semi-sweet, peanut butter, vanilla, butterscotch)

"Whatever" mix-ins:

1 cup oats

1 cup craisins or raisins

1 cup coconut

1 cup nuts

***Mix very well! (Your hand will get tired!) Drop by rounded 1/2 cups or giant spoonful. Round into about a 2-inch ball and flatten on cookie sheet to 1/2 inch thick. Bake at 375 degrees for 13-15 minutes on ungreased cookie sheet.

Enjoy!

Amazing, Soft, Chewy Flat Bread

2010-05-03T10:39:00.000-07:00

I saw this recipe for Soft Wrap Bread a while ago at Real Mom Kitchen and My Kitchen Cafe. I tried it, loved it, and have been making them ever since. I crave this wrap bread! We use it for Chicken Gyros, Tacos, Fajitas, and pretty much anything that calls for a tortilla to stuff with good food! The original recipe calls for white flour, but I use my whole wheat flour with great results. I am always trying to work in the wheat wherever I can. If you are not used to the wheat, you can use white, or do half and half. I grind my wheat in small portions so that it doesn't go bad before I use it. We usually go through it pretty quick for it to go bad. The wheat berries will keep for a very long time, but once it is ground, it needs to be used. If you do grind a lot at a time, make sure you store it in a cool place. You can even store it in your fridge or freezer. This wrap bread is delicious! It is so soft and chewy from the potato flakes. It is also very simple to make. It is dry-fried, which is even better! This would be perfect to eat with your tacos, or fajitas on Cinco de Mayo!

Soft Wrap Bread

3 cups flour (wheat, or white flour, or half and half)

1 1/4 cups boiling water

1/4 cup potato flour or 1/2 cup potato buds or flakes

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon instant yeast

1) To make the bread: Place 2 cups of the flour into a bowl or the bucket of a dough mixer. Pour the boiling water over the flour, and stir till smooth. Cover the bowl or bucket and set the mixture aside for 30 minutes.

2) In a seperate bowl, whisk together the potato flour (or flakes or buds) and the remaining 1 cup of flour with the salt, oil and yeast.

3) Add this to the cooled flour/water mixture, stir, then knead for several minutes (by hand, or mixer) to form a soft dough. Continue mixing for 5 minutes. The dough should form a ball, but will remain somewhat sticky. Add additional flour only if necessary; if kneading by hand, keep your hands and work surface lightly oiled.

4)Let the dough rise, covered, for 1 hour.

5) Divide the dough into 8 pieces (each about the size of a handball, cover, and let rest for 15-30 minutes.

6) Roll each piece into a 7"-8"-circle, and dry-fry them (fry without oil) over medium heat for about 1 minute per side, until they're puffed and flecked with brown spots. Adjust the heat if they seem to be cooking either too quickly, or too slowly; cooking too quickly means they may be raw in the center, while too slowly will dry them out.

7) Transfer the cooked breads to a wire rack, stacking them to keep them soft. Serve immediately, or cool slightly before storing in a plastic bag.

Enjoy!

Pudding Paint for the kids and those rainy-indoor days!

2010-04-22T09:48:00.000-07:00

This was a perfect afternoon activity for my kids. They loved it. I made my pudding paint with Vanilla Instant Jell-O Pudding. I split it into 4 dishes and added different food colors to each. I gave my kids each a cookie sheet for their pudding art. We used some giant paint brushes to color with. We threw in some graham crackers and marshmallows for decorating and snacking.

They loved painting pictures. The fun ended... or should I say began... when one little boy accidentally painted on his older brothers' hand. It was so much fun, he just kept on going and going. They were laughing so hard. That was their favorite part. The little boy who started it started painting on himself. When they were finished, or I was finished with it all over the floor, it was bathtime! (It's best to just do this in the diapers and underwear.)

They had a great time with the pudding paint, and I had a great time watching them and taking pictures. So if you need a fun activity for the kiddos, and you are patient enough to clean up a little mess, you won't regret it. We love making memories, and my boys will always remember this one!

Happy Spring!!!

What are you going to do with all those hard boiled eggs?

2010-04-05T09:31:00.000-07:00

Introducing... Eggs Golden Rod!!!

This is a post from last year, but is worthy for reposting, and I figured that we all are overloaded with dyed Easter eggs and don't know what to do with them. This recipe comes from my Dad's side. It is delicious! My husband doesn't dare try it, but I love it, and I will raise my family on it. Cut up egg white's in a creamy white sauce over toast, and topped with grated egg yolk and fresh ground pepper! Sounds, and maybe even looks a little weird, but until you have tried it, you can't say whether you like it or not. I think we will serve it for dinner this week so that my husband has to try it. Oh...it's so evil! Go here for the recipe!

Happy Spring weather to you all!

Irish Dinner & St. Patrick's Day Ideas

2010-03-15T09:51:00.000-07:00

We really enjoy celebrating the holiday's at our house and try to make them special for our kids. For me holiday's are exciting, mostly because I enjoy planning and preparing food. Last year for St. Patrick's day my sister and her kids joined us for our St. Patrick's day dinner, and this is what we came up with. We made Corned Beef Grilled Cheese on Rye, Curried Split Pea Soup, and Pistachio pudding served in lime bowls. It was a delicious St. Patty's day feast, and we ate it right up. I got the idea at Prudence Pennywise. Click here for the recipe. I did Pastrami instead of the Corned Beef, which was delicious. It was a little more peppy, and we loved it. This year I am going to make my own Irish Soda Bread, also found at Prudence Pennywise. Go here for the recipe. The bread looks delicious, and I want to make my meal as Irish as possible! The Curried Split Pea Soup isn't so much Irish, but it is green!!! This recipe was found at the Food Network from Alton Brown. Get the recipe here. This soup was delicious. I had never had Split Peas before, and had a great experience with this soup. We added carrots just to throw in more veggies. It was perfect, and the curry is so perfect in this soup. This was a perfect meal, and definitely filled us up.

Next, we made a Pistachio Pudding Salad. I love this salad. The pistachio taste is so perfect, and I love the crunch. It's all in a pudding box, and fantastic. This is one of those "throw-it-together" salads, that never dissapoints. If you have never had Pistachio Pudding Salad, and you are thinking "Yuck", just try it. Those thoughts will change! We served it in a hollowed Lime. More green!

Pistachio Pudding Salad

1 small box Pistachio Instant Pudding
1 small can mandarin oranges drained
1 can fruit cocktail drained
1 8 oz. Cool Whip

Combine all ingredients and stir to combine. Allow a few hours to sit and set up in the fridge before serving. Yumm!

More green!!! Break out the food coloring!

What would St. Patrick's Day be without a green breakfast!?! We made our favorite Wheat blender pancakes and threw in drops of food coloring to get a good St. Patty's Day green. Because I am not talented in making Shamrock shaped pancakes, we made our own shamrocks with the round pancakes put together, and added a piece for the stem. We added food coloring to the eggs too. I know that you may not think this looks very appetizing, but do it for the kids!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Peanut Butter Mousse

2010-03-03T11:04:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited that it's March! Spring is on its way! I have some tullips that are pushing their way up through the cold ground. I'm so excited to see what flowers are going to pop up here at our new house. I have to tell my sister thank you for taking over and posting some wonderful recipes over the last few months. I am finally getting back into the swing of things after having my #4 baby. Babies are so wonderful. I have been enjoying every minute of it. Having 4 boys (not including Dad) in the house can get pretty crazy at times, but I wouldn't change it for anything. I love my boys and feel so LUCKY to have them. This recipe was a HUGE hit with them.

Monday was National Peanutbutter Lover's Day and on Studio 5 (www.studio5.ksl.com )they shared this recipe! I have several, including me, in my house that LOVE peanut butter. I happened to have all the ingredients on hand and decided to make this for our FHE treat! It was AMAZING. Our hands and faces were covered with the mousse. We loved it! My sister will be making these for our get together on Sunday after blessing my new baby. She's going to make them mini. We did have a hard time eating them the regular size cupcakes. I think they'll be the perfect bite size dessert for Sunday.

Stephanie Younger's Peanut Butter Mousse

3 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

1 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup milk

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

2 cups heavy cream (cold)

1 Tbsp. vanilla

With a mixer, mix cream and vanilla until stiff peaks form. Put in fridge. Cream together cream cheese, milk, & peanut butter. Fold in the whipped cream. Stir until it is smooth. Refrigerate before eating.

Cupcakes

I used a Triple Chocolate box cake mix for my cupcakes. Follow directions for cupcake. Cool completely. Cut in half. Place mousse in a ziplock bag and cut corner, squeeze mousse onto cup cake. Put top of cupcake on top of mousse & top it with another dollop of peanut butter mousse. To top the dessert off, you can chop up Reese's Peanut Butter Cups or use peanut butter & chocolate chips! ENJOY!

Olympic Pizza & my new FAVORITE Pizza Crust

2010-02-26T14:11:00.000-08:00

I love a good pizza. Friday nights are usually Pizza night at our house. It is a meal that the whole family enjoys, and I don't have to force it down! We designed our Pepperoni's to make the Olympic Rings on our pizza. We ate pizza and watched the Olympics. It was a lot of fun, and something we never do. We always eat dinner at the dinner table, and never sit in front of the TV while we eat. Our kids just ate it right up, and tried to immitate the ice skaters and their jumps. This would be a great way to close out the Olympics. Enough about the Pizza decorating, and Olympics... The crust is what I am talking about today. This crust is delicious! Chewy, crispy, crusty, and quick!!! I was most pleased with the quick part about it. You bake this pizza at 500 degrees. That scared me, but it was perfect. I can't wait to make it again tonight for another Olympic night. We are going to do some junior olympics with our kids. We are going to play games like "carry the cotton balls on a spoon", throw the ball into a jar", "balance a pose on one foot", "kitchen hockey with wooden spoons", etc... I've got young kids, so it won't be complicated at all. I am going to make medals for everyone out of canning jar lids, tied with ribbon. Then we will watch the Olympics. We'll see how it goes. Because my kids are young I try not to get my hopes up, and I don't put too much time and effort into it, in case it totally blows! So, if you want to do an Olympic party this weekend to close out the 2010 Winter Olympics, whip up this awesome pizza crust and make it festive for the closing ceremonies.

I found this recipe through The Sisters' dish at www.thesistersdish.blogspot.com , who found it at Little Birdie Secrets at www.littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com . Thanks for sharing this yummy crust! Check out their blogs. They are great!

15-Minute Pizza Dough

2 1/2 cup flour
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup hot water (120-130 degrees, use a candy thermometer for accuracy)
1 Tbsp Rapid Ris or Bread Machine yeast (I used SAF Instant yeast with great results)
2 Tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Mix dry ingredients together. Add hot water and olive oil. Mix for five minutes (I used my mixer with dough hook, but you could do it by hand too). Let rest 10 minutes. Press dough on pizza pan, pizza stone, or jelly roll pan. Bake at 500 degrees for 3 minutes. Take out of the oven and cover with toppings. Return to the oven and bake 8-10 minutes more. Makes on large pizza (16-18 inches).

***I rolled mine out to fit my cookie sheet and it was perfect for an Olympic flag.

Caramel & Chocolate Dipped Pretzels for your Valentine!

2010-02-10T09:14:00.000-08:00

My very favorite sweet is caramel and chocolate dipped pretzels. Years ago I had a friend who was a pro at making them. I have lost touch with her, and I have tried to make my own. I have been working on them for a few years now, and I almost have them perfect. This year the perfect thing that worked was using my mom's caramel recipe, which is actually my grandma's recipe. It is delicious! We have used it as caramel dip, caramel popcorn, it really can be used for caramel in any recipe. In my case, I used the caramel for the first layer on my yummy dipped pretzels. The recipe is really easy, soft, chewy and of course, sweet goodness. I love licking the spatula! Dipping pretzels for Valentine's Day has become a tradition for me. I would like to do them for Christmas, but I can't make all the best sweets for Christmas, so I save these little treasures for Valentine's day. I love the crunch from the pretzel, the chewy caramel, and heavenly milk chocolate topped with festive sprinkles. To top them off, I wrap them in a simple clear treat bag and dress it up with a cute ribbon. It is perfect for all the love's in your life. I like to use the Honey Wheat Pretzel Twists that are found at Wal-Mart. (They are Wal-Mart brand, and so tasty.) I used to be able to get them at Sam's Club in a big tub, but they stopped selling them, so when I found them at Wal-Mart, I had to buy several bags. My kids love to snack on them, and I get my fair share too. These are so much better than the standard bland pretzel's that our out there. I just used Guittard Milk Chocolate Chips for dipping, which worked out great, but next time I am going to get dipping chocolate. I also want to get pink and red dipping chocolate for drizzling next time. I'm not crazy about the crunch from the sprinkles. So, I'm still perfecting them, but I do know one thing, that I will always use my mom's caramel recipe, so here it is...

Mom's Caramel for Dipped Pretzels

2 cups Brown Sugar
1 cup Light Corn Syrup
1 cube Butter (has to be butter)
1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk

Dissolve brown sugar in corn syrup in large pan over medium-high heat. When dissolved, add butter and melt. When butter is melted, add sweetened condensed milk. Stir and scrape the bottom constantly as to not let caramel burn on the bottom. Attatch candy thermometer to the side of your pot and watch closely. When it gets to Soft Ball Stage, keep stirring vigorously and time for 2-3 more minutes. Remove your pan from heat and continue stirring to cool down quickly. Let it sit for about 10-15 minutes stirring occassionally before dipping pretzels. Prepare cookie sheets lined with wax paper. You are ready to dip when the caramel stays on the pretzel and doesn't just melt right off. If it slides right off and pools, wait a bit longer. Dip your pretzels and twist with your finger to drain extra caramel off and place on parchment paper to set. Continue until caramel is gone. Any extra caramel can be stored in the fridge and reheated for caramel apple dipping, ice cream drizzling, or other caramel yummies.

When caramel is set, melt chocolate in double broiler pan. If you don't have a double broiler, you can use a glass bowl that will fit inside a saucepan with about one inch of space between the glass bowl and saucepan. Fill saucepan with about 1/4 in of water and boil. Put chocolate chips or dipping chocolate in glass bowl and melt. Dip caramel covered pretzels into chocolate and place back on parchment lined cookie sheet to set up. If you want sprinkles, do it now before the chocolate dries. If you want to drizzle with colored chocolate, wait until chocolate sets up.

When pretzels are set up, assemble in cute bags with bow. There are lots of creative ways to pretty them up. I love tying them with big cute bows. It's simple, and really cute. So if you have some special people in your life that you love, surprise them with these delicious treats!

Happy Valentine's Day from My Sisters' Cucina!

Lemony "LOVE" Potion

2010-02-08T12:41:00.000-08:00

We had a fun Valentine's party for all the cousins last week, and this was the drink we served. I found the recipe on Family Fun's website. That is one of my "go-to" sites when I am looking for something kid-friendly. I did modify the recipe a bit, and I do have ideas to make it even better! I found these cute valentine kiddie cups at Wal-Mart, and my mom got the straws from none other than... 7-eleven. They were kind to give us 15 long slurpee straws for free! Thanks 7-eleven! The kids just guzzled these right up, and we were right there taking pictures of it all. I wish I had it on video. They were slurping, and blowing bubbles...all the things we tell them not to do at the dinner table. They would say, "On your mark, get set, go"... and they would all blow bubbles at the same time. It was a hoot. They loved it, and so did we, because they were sitting still and being quiet...other than the slurping and bubble blowing! They were having fun spending time with their cousins, and that is why we plan these parties. It is very easy to assemble, and takes little prep time. So, if you have a Valentine's party to plan, throw this onto the menu. You'll be glad you did!

Lemony Love Potion
Family Fun

12-ounce can frozen Raspberry Lemonade concentrate
1/2 gallon Raspberry Sherbet
1 liter Lemon-Lime soda (I used 1-up)

In a pitcher prepare frozen lemonade with recommended water. (Decide how much drink you want, and you will put half lemonade and half 7-up.) Pour lemonade in cup. Drop one large scoop of sherbet into lemonade and top with 7-up to fill cup and make good bubbles. Stick one red soda straw in each cup, and serve!

***I think this would be great with a pineapple sherbet, or rainbow sherbet. I liked the tarty taste that the lemonade gave it, but I probably will leave it out next time. I love the sherbet and 7-up combo. It's just like a Root Beer Float, but it's fruity. Love it! I think next time I will top them each with a nice red cherry. They would look beautiful in Sundae mugs.

"Lovely" Banana Cake

2010-02-02T12:10:00.000-08:00

I promised a few banana recipes, so here is one more!!! This Banana-Sour Cream Cake is de-lish! This recipe comes from Kraft Foods. The combination of banana and walnut is perfect, and the sour cream makes it a very moist cake. It takes a boxed cake mix to a whole new level. Topped with a rich cream cheese frosting definitely making this cake absolutely perfect! We eat this cake all year. There is always a reason to make Banana cake at my house. We have lots of ripe bananas in our freezer from the killer deal Macey's had on bananas in the summer, so we can make Banana cake several more times... and I'm sure we will... and so should you!

Banana-Sour Cream Cake
Kraft Foods

1 pkg (2-layer size) yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3)
1 cup sour Cream
1/4 cup oil
1 pkg. (8 oz.) Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 pkg. (16 oz.) powdered sugar (about 4 cups)
1 cup walnut pieces, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 13x9- inch baking pan; set aside. Beat cake mix, eggs, bananas, sour cream and oil in large bowl with electric mixer on low speed just until moistened, stopping frequently to scrape bottom and side of bowl. Beat on medium speed 2 min. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake 35 min. or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan on wire rack.

Beat cream cheese and butter in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Gradually add sugar, beating after each addition until well blended.

Remove cake from pan; cut crosswise in half. Place one cake half, top-side down, on large serving plate; spread top with frosting. Top with remaining cake half, top-side up. Frost top and sides of cake with remaining frosting. Carefully press walnuts into frosting on sides of cake. Store any leftovers in refrigerator.

***Neatly frost this cake by freezing cake layers about 20 minutes before frosting. This helps to set the crumbs on the cut edges of the cake layers so they don't pull up into the frosting. Don't worry if the frosting doesn't look perfect on the sides of the cake - the walnuts will cover any imperfections.

***I doubled this cake for a baby blessing and it worked perfectly. I stacked 2 - 9x13 cakes. It turned out beautifully!

Enjoy!

Come back next week with some Valentine's Day Treats!

Frosted Banana Cookies

2010-01-14T20:13:00.000-08:00

This recipe comes from the Worlwide Ward Cookbook, and they are fabulous! They are banana bread in a cookie form with a sweet cream cheese frosting to top them off. What could be better!?! I love banana bread, banana cake (which I will be posting soon), banana muffins (another post for another day), and I love these banana cookies. These cookies are so soft and chewy... I couldn't stop eating them! I shared them with neighbors and friends who helped me when I had my baby recently, of which is not so recent anymore! This is a great way to use up ripe bananas. Never throw out your old bananas because they aren't getting used ... peel, and put them in a ziploc and place them in the freezer until you are ready to use them. When you are ready to use them, defrost them and mash them right in the bag.

Frosted Banana Cookies
WorldWide Ward Cookbook / Minda Kjar

Cookies:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup butter-flavored shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup ripe bananas, mashed (about 3)
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk or 1/2 cup milk + 1 tsp. lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3 1/4 cups flour

Cream Cheese Frosting:
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

Cream the butter and shortening. Add sugar, then bananas. Mix well. Stir in eggs and vanilla. Blend in buttermilk. Add the dry ingredients until just combined. Do not over-beat. It will be a sticky batter. Drop by tablespoons onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 9-12 minutes. Cool completely.

Cream the butter and cream cheese. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat until fluffy. Spread on cookies.

Makes 3-4 dozen cookies.

Congrats to my Sister who welcomed her #4 BOY into their home this week! Best of Luck Rach, and get some rest! Love ya baby Cooper! Your Favorite Auntie Sara will be there soon to meet you! Love ya Rach!

Chocolate Andes Mint Cookies for Christmas!

2009-12-14T09:04:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!!! These cookies are amazing! They are delicious on a cold winter night with a nice cup of Hot Chocolate! The melted Andes mints on top of the cookie give the perfect minty Christmas taste. All you need is a Devil's Food Cake Mix and Andes Mints. These cookies are very easy...and that really appeals to me right now. We are having a great holiday season filled with family, parties, snow and of course... yummy food!!! We are planning a fancy Christmas dinner with my family that will be so festive and delicious. I will save pictures to post for next year to blog about. Maybe I will have things in order by then! Until then, give these cookies a try. I will be making another batch this weekend for a Christmas party for my church. These are great to involve the kids by letting them open the Andes Mint candies and placing them on the cookies.

Chocolate Andes Mint Cookies

From: www.sugardoodle.net

1 Devil's Food Cake Mix

2 Eggs

1/2 Cup Oil

1 Andes Mint Per Cookie (36 pieces)

Makes 3 Dozen Cookies

Combine cake mix, eggs and oil until combined. Drop rounded spoonfuls onto cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and lightly pat each cookie with the back of a spoon to get the air out. Place one Andes mint on each cookie and return to the oven for 1 more minute. Remove from oven and use spatula to gently move the mint around on each cookie until completely smeared over the top of the cookie. Cool completely.

These make great neighbor's gifts, whether you bake them up, or just give them a box of mints with the recipe. These are delicious cookies and perfect for Christmas goodies.

Warm & Yummy Christmas Wishes To You All!!!

from, your friends at My Sisters' Cucina

Gingerbread Cheesecake Dessert

2009-11-16T09:09:00.001-08:00

Here's a recipe to sort of kick off the holidays! At this time of year, I love gingerbread! I was so excited when I found a Betty Crocker Gingerbread Cookie Mix at the grocery store. I had every intention of using it to make gingerbread cookies with my kids, but I found this recipe on the back and just had to try it out. It was absolutely delicious. My six year old had 2 1/2 servings of it and still wanted more. It was easy to make and ended up being a big hit. You could use any recipe you have for gingerbread cookies or pick up one of these cookies mixes at your grocery store.

Gingerbread Cheesecake Dessert
1 pouch Betty Crocker gingerbread cookie mix
butter, water and egg called for on cookie mix pouch
1 can (14 oz) sweetened & condensed milk
8 oz package cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
2 cups frozen whipped topping, thawed

Make cookie dough as directed. Shape dough into 5 (1 inch) balls. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Press remaing dough into greased 13 x 9 pan. Bake 8-10 minutes. Mix sweetened & condensed milk, cream cheese and lemon juice until smooth. Fold in whipped topping. Spread over cooled cookie base. Crumble 5 baked cookies and sprinkle on top. Cover & refrigerate about 1 hour. (I did have to bake my cookies and cookie base for longer than it called for).

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

2009-10-29T14:21:00.001-07:00

Hope you are all having a fun October! Here is a picture of the Jack-O-Lantern's we carved this week. My kids are so excited to go Trick or Treating. My boys are dressing up as little cowboys. They are the cutest little cowboys I've ever seen! I will be dressing up as Dolly Parton, my husband is a Gold Miner and our little girl is his Gold Nugget. We went with a Western theme this year. We are all excited for Halloween. Our food menu for the day will be Pumpkin Pancakes for breakfast, Mummy Dogs and Apple Peanut Butter monster mouths for lunch, and Chili and Cornbread for dinner. Halloween is my favorite holiday, and we have been celebrating all month between our sicknesses. Yes, we were victims of the Swine Flu! We had it... it was an awful week... but now we are done with it! Here is a great last minute Halloween treat idea. It is so simple. They are super kid friendly...especially with the sucker stick.

All you have to do is make Rice Krispie treats by following the recipe on the box. Spread into a buttered cookie sheet. To make spreading a lot easier use a fork and dip your fork in cold water as you spread. Sprinkle with Halloween colored sprinkles. Let them cool completely before cutting out with your favorite Halloween cookie cutters. Add mini chocolate chips for eyes if desired. Stick your sucker stick in and you've got a treat! You can wrap them up as party favors, class treats, or just to throw into your kids' lunch box. I don't know a kid who doesn't like rice krispie treats. They are always a big hit!

Enjoy, and have a happy and safe Halloween! We carved this pumpkin today with a stencil I found online. My kids were just tickled to have a Mickey pumpkin. Tomorrow I am going to make some Haunted Gingerbread Houses. I will just use Graham Crackers, chocolate and orange frosting and Halloween candies. If they turnout, I will post them next year.

HAVE A SPOOKTACULAR HALLOWEEN!

Melt in your mouth muffins & Halloween Muddy Buddies

2009-10-23T11:51:00.000-07:00

These muffins are my all time favorite! My little boy could hardly wait to get his hands on these. My mom used to make them regularly when I was growing up. I remember we gave this mix out for Christmas one year. We spent hours together as a family making the mix and delivering it to our neighbors. They are so yummy and yes, they do melt in your mouth! This recipe come from a book called: Make-a-Mix Cookery. It is filled with master mixes that you can put together and have ready to pull out for almost anything. Here's the one for this recipe.

Master Mix
8 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup baking powder
1 Tbsp salt

Mix all ingredients and store in a large airtight container. Us within 10-12 weeks. It's so nice to have this sitting in my cupboard.

Melt in your Mouth Muffins
2 1/3 cups muffin mix (master mix - recipe above)
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk
3 Tbsp oil

Combine all ingredients. Stuir until mix is just moistened; batter should be lumpy. Fill greased muffin pan 2/3 full. Bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. Makes 12 muffins.

Melt 1 cube butter. Make a mixture of cinnamon & sugar. Roll muffins in butter and then cinnamon/sugar mixture. Enjoy!

I know that just about everyone LOVES muddy buddies. This is a favorite at my house. We decided to spice up our muddy buddies with candy corn and halloween M&M's. They were a hit. I thought this would make a cute gift for a teacher or friend. I used the recipe found right on the Rice Chex Cereal box. I then added the M&M's & candy corn. I posted this recipe last year at Christmas time with Christmas M&M's. You can search under Christmas for that recipe.

Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!

AMAZING Cornbread

2009-10-12T12:49:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am still alive! I haven't posted for forever, and I am sorry. I think that we are all at different times and seasons of our lives, and I am in a busy one!!! I do have good intentions for posting, because I take pictures of my food all the time. I just can't hit the next step of actually posting it. Maybe next year! For now, I am just going to do what I can. I am posting this yummy cornbread recipe because it has been so highly requested. I got it from the talented Melanie at http://www.mykitchencafe.blogspot.com/ . She has got an amazing blog and this cornbread is triple amazing! You will want to throw away all of those packaged cornbread mixes. This cornbread will blow you away. I served it at our annual family Halloween party over the weekend and got many compliments. So thank you to Melanie for sharing this recipe. It is moist, sweet, and delicious! You do not want to miss out on this cornbread. I had to make it again yesterday so that we could have some leftovers. LOVE IT!!!

Cornbread
From: Melanie at My Kitchen Cafe

½ cup cornmeal
1 ½ cup flour
2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup oil
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 eggs, beaten
1 ¼ cup milk

Add dry ingredients, make a well and add oil, butter, eggs, and milk into the center. Stir until just mixed (batter will be runny - don't be alarmed!). Bake in an 8” square pan at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. This doubles perfectly for a 9X13-inch pan.

***I like to drizzle honey all over the cornbread after baking. You know this is a good cornbread, because the honey seeps right into the bread and doesn't just drizzle off the sides like the packaged cornbread mixes.

I like to make my dry ingredients and store in a ziploc so that I have it on hand and all ready to just add my wet ingredients.

Heavenly Peach Dessert

2009-09-14T13:28:00.001-07:00

This peach dessert is to die for. It is so yummy! I found the recipe on the Cooking Divas site. I just moved into the neighborhood that does this blog. I'm not sure if I've met the person whose recipe this is, but I can't wait to thank her for it. I want to run out and get more peaches just so I can make it again. It is delicious. A definite must try. Here's the link to it: http://thecookingdivaideas.blogspot.com/2009/09/shannons-famous-fresh-peach-dessert.html

I did double the crust and saved some to sprinkle on top. Other than that, I followed the recipe. My family gobbled this up. I'm glad that I have just a little bit waiting for me in the refrigerator. Can't wait for my alone time tonight when the kids are in bed.

FYI

Me & a friend are selling these fun corn stalks! I will have more information to come, but if any of you live in the Layton, Bountiful or Salt Lake areas and are interested, leave me a comment and I will keep you posted as to when we will be selling them.

Super easy crowd pleaser...bruschetta

2009-09-08T15:44:00.000-07:00

If any of you are like me, you have tomatoes coming out your ears right now. This is one dish that has been a huge hit at my house. I first had Bruschetta while serving a mission in Italy. Aside from the gelato and pizza it was my most favorite dish. When I got home from my mission I made it for almost every get together. It was always one of the first things to disappear from the plate. It is still one of my favorite things and I always order it when I have the chance at my favorite Italian restaraunts. So, with some of your extra tomatoes, try this out.

Bruschetta
6-8 Roma Tomatoes, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
Fresh Basil, washed and finely chopped
Ciabatta bread
Olive oil
salt, to taste

Slice bread into 3/4 inch slices. Brush with olive oil and broil on high until lightly toasted. Meanwhile, place chopped tomatoes, garlic, basil, salt and a little olive oil in a bowl. Top toasted bread with tomatoes. Buon Apettito!

Hopefully I am back to blogging. I am finally feeling better and we're getting settled in our new house. I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things very soon. Hopefully we'll have some great ideas for fall and halloween coming up soon.

Bowtie Grilled Chicken Spinich Salad to Feed Your Next Crowd

2009-08-24T11:59:00.001-07:00

This here is a favorite! For some reason this is what we always make for bridal showers and baby showers, but rarely for our weeknight dinner. It is so popular, and so many people have asked for the recipe, so here we are posting it to the blog in hopes that we can get more people to our blog when we say...

"you can get the recipe at www.mysisterscucina.blogspot.com!"

So now you can do the same when you whip this up for your next shower, party, dinner, whatever ... lead them to our blog! This salad is so versatile. You can mix and match this with whatever you want. However you dress it, it is delicious! The chicken is so tender and juicy when you marinate it the night before. The noodles are also marinated in a special sauce that makes them so flavorful. The only problem is that you HAVE to have GrillMates Teriyaki Sauce for this. I have had trouble finding it, but I know you can always get it at Target. This recipe takes planning. You want to cook the noodles the night before and have it marinating in the dressing over night. You also need to marinate your chicken over night. It is well worth it! this recipe will feed about 24 people as the main dish served with other sides.

Bowtie Grilled Chicken Spinich Salad

6-7 Chicken Breasts marinated in Italian Dressing the night before & grilled and cut into 1-inch pieces a few hours before serving.

3-4 boxes or bags of bowtie pasta cooked & marinated in the following dressing the night before

Dressing:

1 cup oil

2/3 cup red wine vinegar

2/3 cup GrillMates Teriyaki Sauce

6 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Mix all ingredients in blender and combine with pasta in an air-tight container and refridgerate over night.

Mix-In:

2 bags baby spinich leaves

red or green onions

craisins

mandarin oranges

sliced mushrooms

slivered almonds

cherry or grape tomatoes

Directions:

When assembling the salad, always add the spinich at the end, and only make the amount needed as to keep the spinich from going limp. You want to have the same amount of spinich to noodles. Add grilled chicken as needed. Add your mix-ins to your liking and serve!

***My very favorite combo is mandarin oranges, craisins and slivered almonds. Experiment and see what you like! I love the spinich mixed with the noodles. It really is delicious! Enjoy!!!

Best Ever... Baked Oatmeal

2009-08-03T14:33:00.000-07:00

We are back!!! Sorry for the month long break we took from blogging. I had a healthy, beautiful baby girl in mid July, and my sister is back on her feet after another awful first trimester of pregnancy for #4. Hopefully we will get back on schedule with the blogging. I have been taking pictures...just not posting. Life is getting back to normal...at least I hope we are heading that way.

This recipe is absolutely delish! I am already deciding when I am going to make it this week. We love it so much. I make the whole batch and store the rest in the fridge for our breakfast for 2 more days. I even eat it for a mid-morning, or mid-afternoon snack. I'm hooked! It is amazing with fresh cut strawberries and milk. I can't wait to try other fruits on top. I bet it will be fantastic with peaches on top. I found this recipe at www.mykitchencafe.blogspot.com . I have loved this blog. She has got awesome pictures, and wonderful recipes. She got this recipe from a friend. I just can't get enough of this breakfast. We call it our Breakfast cake. It seems to make my kids excited to eat it. They love it! I don't think I will buy Instant Oatmeal ever again. It just will never compare to this tasty baked oatmeal.

Baked Oatmeal

From: My Kitchen Cafe

6 cups oatmeal (you can use quick or rolled - quick gives it a smoother texture)

2 cups brown sugar

1 cup oil

2 cups milk

4 beaten eggs

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 teaspoons salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together and pour into a greased 9X13-inch baking pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Serve warm with milk and fruit... or not.

I have halved the recipe and it works great, but I do suggest making the whole pan...it is great for days!

Enjoy!

Picky Palate's Quick Weeknight Asian Turkey Lettuce Wraps

2009-06-29T09:22:00.000-07:00

We have an over abundance of lettuce in our garden right now, so we try and have a salad either for the main course or side at just about every meal. This meal was definitely a winner! I don't usually cook with Ground Turkey, so this was new for our family. Because of all the lettuce we have I have been racking my brain for recipes to try. I remembered these lettuce wraps I had seen on Picky Palate's site and was excited to try them. Jenny is a very talented cook. She always amazes me with her inventions. Check out her site at www.picky-palate.com . These are delicious! If you have ever had lettuce wraps, you eat like ten of them before you are full. They are a great way to use lettuce. We have romaine lettuce, which worked out great. The meat mixture is a little spicy, crunchy, and so good. Try it out...they won't dissapoint you! My boys devoured them. I will be back with another lettuce wrap recipe soon...that is if I don't have my baby!

Quick Weeknight Asian Turkey Lettuce Wraps
From: Jenny at Picky Palate

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 Cup finely chopped onion
1 lb ground turkey breast
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon garlic salt
1 12 oz bag of Broccoli Slaw
1 small can drained water chestnuts
½ Cup Yoshida’s Teriyaki Sauce (I used Kikkomen)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Approximately 15 Butter Lettuce leaves (you can also use iceberg lettuce leaves)

1. Place oil into a large 5 qt skillet or other large pan over medium heat. When hot, add onion and cook for 5 minutes to soften. Add ground turkey, salt, pepper and garlic salt. Brown and crumble until cooked through.
2. When turkey is cooked, stir in broccoli slaw, water chestnuts, teriyaki sauce and sesame oil. Cook for another 10-15 minutes or until heated through. Reduce heat to low until ready to serve. Serve spoonfuls inside lettuce leaves. Enjoy!

Triple-Layer Banana Cream Pie Bars

2009-06-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

We have a favorite ice cream place that makes the best Banana Cream Pie Shakes. We love a good shake, and I love the Banana Cream Pie shake because it is light and honestly...I can eat it all and not feel so bad as opposed to the Hot Fudge shake, with extra hot fudge. Anyhow this post is not a Banana Cream Pie shake, but Banana Cream Pie Bars that taste so close to the yummy shake that I love. It is so tasty, light, and delicious for a summer dessert! It is definitely a favorite at our house. I found this recipe in another Kraft Food & Family Magazine.

***Sorry for the lack of posting. I am 3 weeks away from having a baby, and have this huge desire to clean, organize, remodel, and do the things that would have been a lot easier 1 year ago when I didn't have a basketball in my tummy and could move a lot quicker without so much pain. My sister on the other hand is now pregnant, and sicker than ever. She doesn't even want to think about food, let alone look at our blog. We will do our best to keep up on the posts... in the meantime hang in there with us...please!!!

Triple-Layer Banana Cream Pie Bars
Kraft Food & Family - Jeff DeLong

1 1/2 cups crushed Nilla Wafers (about 60 wafers)
1/2 cup Planters Chopped Pecans
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
3 bananas, sliced
3 cups cold milk
2 pkg. (4-serving size each) Jell-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding & Pie Filling
2 1/2 cups thawed Cool Whip Whipped Topping

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix wafer crumbs, pecans and butter in 13X9-inch baking dish; press firmly onto bottom of dish. Bake 8 min. Cool 10 min.

Top crust with banana slices. Pour milk into large bowl. Add dry pudding mixes. Beat with wire whisk 2 min. or until well blended. Spoon 2 cups of the pudding over banana layer.

Gently stir 1 cup of the whipped topping into remaining pudding; spoon over pie. Top with remaining 1 1/2 cups whipped topping. Refrigerate 3 hours. Store leftovers in refrigerator.

Quick Chicken Fettucinne Cacciatore & Speedy Summer Fruit Salad

2009-06-01T13:04:00.000-07:00

This Pasta dish is one of my family's favorites. It is packed with veggies, chicken marinated in Italian dressing, tossed with fettucinne noodles, and seasoned with fresh basil & cheese! It has the perfect zing, and is great for a quick summer dish. I found this recipe in the Kraft Food & Family magazine years ago, and have been making it for my family ever since. The breadsticks on the side will have to be posted another day...but I will tell you that they were delicious!

Quicke Fettucinne Cacciatore

1/2 lb. fettuccine, uncooked
2 tsp. oil
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
1 cup each: green pepper strips and sliced fresh mushrooms
1 can (14-1/2 oz.) diced tomatoes, undrained
1/4 cup KRAFT Zesty Italian Dressing
1/2 cup KRAFT Shredded Italian* Mozzarella-Parmesan Cheese Blend
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil

COOK pasta as directed on package.
MEANWHILE, heat oil in large skillet on medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook and stir until no longer pink. Add peppers and mushrooms; cook 3 min., stirring occasionally. Stir in tomatoes and dressing; simmer on medium-low heat 5 min. or until chicken is done.
DRAIN pasta. Toss with chicken mixture; sprinkle with cheese and basil.

***I like to marinate my Chicken with about 1/2 cup Italian Dressing prior to cooking the chicken. It adds a bit more flavor to the cooked chicken.

We have been enjoying strawberries for a good month now, and I found a way to whip up a fast fruit salad with whatever fruit you have on hand. We eat a lot of fruit, and probably serve it at every meal so this was perfect for us. At the end of the day I usually have a half eaten banana and an apple with a few bites in it that need to be used. I cut them up and combine them with whatever berries I have. My boys also love yogurt, and would eat it all day if I let them. This is a perfect combo, and it took just minutes to have a fabulous, healthy fruit salad.

Speedy Summer Fruit Salad

1/2 cup each of bite size fruit (strawberries, blueberries, or raspberries with bananas, & apples)
Vanilla Yogurt

Combine fruit and enough yogurt to coat the fruit & serve!

***I make just enough for the family to eat at that meal. That way the bananas won't go brown. We always eat it all up! You could try different flavors of yogurt. Strawberry or Lemon would be wonderful!

Lemon-Cream Cheese Cupcakes

2009-05-21T13:19:00.000-07:00

These little beauties are absolutely delicious. They are light and moist with a sweet lemony taste that just melts in your mouth. They are made with a white cake mix and a few more additions that make these little cakes just luscious! I got this recipe from Kraft Food & Family magazine. It was on the cover of their spring magazine last year, and we have made them several times since then. They really are divine! The cream cheese frosting is so tasty, and I love to lick out the bowl. I have even put extra frosting between graham crackers and it was amazing! These are always a hit. For this particular occasion we took some to a neighbor who was kind enough to give us eggs so that we could make them. We assured them that they would be rewarded for their kindness. I also gave a few to my friend who was about to have her baby for a little pregnant sweet treat, and she loved them. They are so soft and fluffy. The frosting just tops it off, and the more frosting the merrier! We load it on. These cupcakes are perfect for spring but are fabulous served anytime, and anywhere!

Lemon-Cream Cheese Cupcakes

Kraft Food & Family

1 pkg. (2-layer size) white cake mix

1 pkg. (4-serving size) Jell-O Lemon Flavor Instant Pudding & Pie Filling

1 cup water

4 egg whites

2 Tbsp. oil

1 pkg. powdered sugar (16 oz.)

1 pkg. (8 oz.) Cream Cheese, softened

1/4 cup butter, softened

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat cake mix, dry pudding mix, water, egg whites and oil in large bowl with electric mixer on low speed until moistened. (Batter will be thick.) Beat on medium speed 2 min. Spoon batter evenly into 24 paper-lined muffin cups.

Bake 21-24 min. or until wooden toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 min.; remove to wire racks. Cool completely.

Meanwhile, beat sugar, cream cheese, butter and juice with electric mixer on low speed until well blended. Frost cupcakes.

Jazz it up: Stir 1 tsp. grated lemon peel into frosting mixture. Garnish with additional grated lemon peel. ( I always jazz them up with the lemon peel. I use a real lemon for the juice, and use the peel for the frosting. It gives it a much more zippy taste from the real lemon.)

*** I like to make my cupcakes in the aluminum foil cupcake liners. That way I can cook them all at the same time on a cookie sheet and I don't have to use my cupcake pans. If you haven't used these before they are fabulous, as long as you don't put too much batter in them... then they become a little distorted.

Enjoy!!!

Chipotle-Honey Pork & Strawberry Delight

2009-05-18T19:44:00.000-07:00

Alright, I haven't posted in a LONG time. Thanks to my great sister for keeping up on this blog. She's truly a lifesaver. This recipe came from another one of those books I found while standing in line at the grocery store. It was absolutely amazing! I'm making it again this weekend. I cooked it for the exact time called for and it turned out perfect. The sauce added just the right spice to it.

Chipotle-Honey Pork
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
2 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce (from 7 oz can), drained, finely chopped
1 tsp adobo sauce (from can of chiles, these are the cheapest at Walmart)
2 pork tenderloins (3/4 lb each, I got mine at Costco)
¼ tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
Cooking spray

Heat grill. In saucepan, mix honey, lime juice, chiles & adobo sauce. Sprinkle pork tenderloins with salt & pepper; lightly spray with cooking spray. Place pork on grill over medium heat; cover grill. Cook 15 to 20 minutes, turning occasionally & brushing with honey mixture during last 10 minutes of cooking time, until pork has slight blush of pink in center. Heat any remaining honey mixture to rolling boil; boil 1 minute. Cup pork into slices; serve with honey mixture.

I don't know what else to call this except for Strawberry Delight. Years ago we were at my grandparents house and this is what they served us for dessert. I couldn't imagine dipping strawberries in sour cream. It was so good and I can remember that we just couldn't stop eating them. I had forgotten about this until my sister brought it to Arches last month. Again, we couldn't stop eating it. It's so yummy and I hope that you'll all give it a try.

Strawberry Delight

Strawberries

Sour Cream

Brown Sugar

Dip strawberries in sour cream and then in brown sugar. Enjoy!

Carmelized Salmon with Mango Salsa & Cilantro Rice

2009-05-13T09:25:00.000-07:00

My husband and I have a favorite restaurant called the Copper Mill. Years ago we went out to eat on a saturday night and they featured a special called Caramelized Salmon with Mango Salsa. I ordered it, loved it, and we have never been able to order it there since. Shortly after I searched for a recipe, but over the years I had forgotten about that yummy meal...except for when we ate at the Coppermill restaurant and I would search for that dish on their menu. My wonderful husband surprised me for Mother's day with this for lunch. He made it all by himself. It was amazing!!! He really is a good cook, and he could easily take over the cooking at our house. He found the recipe on BellaOnline's Quick cooking Site from Karen Hancock. It can be done in 30 minutes... however, for our first time making it, it took us a little bit longer.This caramelized salmon is so tasty! The caramelizing around the salmon is sweet, a little crunchy around the edges, and so tender. The mango salsa gives the salmon a perfect zing! It's a little spicy, but sweet from the mango. The cilantro rice tops it off. I love eating rice on the side of salmon. This meal was absolutely delicious! We served it with a yummy smoothie. If you love salmon you have got to try this recipe. You will love it!!!

Go here for the recipe for 30 Minute Caramelized Salmon Dinner:
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art60794.asp

Enjoy!!!

Sopapilla Cheesecake

2009-05-05T09:08:00.000-07:00

This cheesecake is amazing!!! It is so delicious, and different. It has a crispy, sweet and chewy crust on the top and bottom, and an amazing creamy, cream cheese filling. My husband and I absolutely loved this, and gobbled it up. I did share it with my friend, and she fell in love with it too. I think it is restaurant worthy! The fresh cut strawberries added a perfect spring taste. I found this recipe on Real Mom Kitchen. I love Laura's blog, and check it daily. I can always find a great recipe on her blog. Check out her blog at www.realmomkitchen.blogspot.com .

Sopapilla Cheesecake

2 cans Pillsbury Crescent rolls
2-8oz Cream Cheese (room temperature)
1 1/2 cups Sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla extract
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 stick butter (1/2 cup real butter not margarine)

Spray a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray. Unroll and press 1 can crescent rolls into the bottom of your baking dish press the seams together. In a separate bowl blend the cream cheese, 1 cup sugar and 1 tsp vanilla. Spread over top of dough. Unroll the second can of crescent rolls and place on top of the cream cheese mixture pressing seams together again. Melt butter and pour over top layer of crescents. Mix the reaming 1/2 cup of sugar & cinnamon together. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture generously over the top. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until bubbly and bottom crust is slightly brown. Cool, slice and enjoy!

Oven Ranch Chicken

2009-04-20T13:04:00.000-07:00

Wow! It's been awhile since I've posted. Thanks to my sister for covering for me. Life just seems to be getting busier all the time. Our family went camping in Arches National Park this last weekend. We had a wonderful time. We had some good meals too! Next time we go camping we'll remember to take pictures of our food. My boys were great explorers. Our big hike was to Delicate Arch. It was tough, but they all made it. It was a beautiful sight that I don't think I'll ever get tired of. It amazes me more each time that I see it. Now, on to the food! This is one of our favorites! I haven't made if for a while but will be making it much more now that I know my boys will gobble it right up (including my pickiest eater). It came from one of those recipe books you see while you're waiting at the checkstand. It's super easy and has so much flavor. Enjoy!

Oven Ranch Chicken
1/3 cup plain bread crumbs
1 pkg. Ranch dressing mix (buttermilk)
1/3 cup sour cream
4 chicken breasts (I used chicken tenders)

Mix bread crumbs & dressing mix. Coat chicken with sour cream & dip in bread crumb mixture. Place on baking sheet & bake uncovered at 350 for 30-35 minutes

Serve with: corn on the cob, red potatoes, broccoli & cheese.

EGGS GOLDEN ROD

2009-04-13T09:04:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a fun Easter! I'm sure you are all sick of eggs and candy by now. We are definitely sugar-ed out at our house. Here is a great way to use up all of those hard-boiled easter eggs that you dyed for easter. I have grown up eating this yummy dish, but introducing it to my husband has not been accepted... yet! He just can't put it all together. This recipe comes from my Grandma & Grandpa. Growing up whenever I would sleep over at their house, they would often serve Eggs Golden Rod for breakfast. Grandpa would always tell us that the grated yolk part would make us grow hair on our chest. I remember really believing him for some time. Because we don't make this dish very often, it is a real treat when we do. I will be making it this afternoon with some very colorful dyed Easter Eggs. I will try it out on my kids this time. I've got to start breaking them into it now! My husband...it will take a while! It is a very filling meal, and could definitely be served for dinner. I usually make it for lunch when I'm just cooking for myself and my kids. It's delicious for breakfast with a glass of Orange Juice! Give it a try!

Eggs Golden Rod

5 hard boiled eggs, peeled

4 Tbsp butter

1/4 cup flour

2 cups milk

Bread

Salt & Pepper to season

White Sauce: Melt butter in medium saucepan at medium heat. Add flour and whisk until combined. Add milk and whisk until thick & bubbling.

Cut egg white in half and pop out the yoke. Dice egg white into small bite-sized pieces and add to white sauce. Grate egg yokes and combine in bowl.

Toast your bread and break up into bite-size pieces. (For a large serving I would do 2 pieces of toast.) Spoon white sauce with egg whites over broken pieces of toast. Sprinkle with grated egg yolk. Season with salt & pepper to your liking. Enjoy!!!

Thanks Grandma & Grandpa for a great tradition!

Easter Candy Shopping!

2009-04-06T10:12:00.000-07:00

I don't know about any of you, but I will be going Easter Candy shopping this week. We will have 3 family Easter Egg hunts this weekend. For our first hunt we decorate and dye hard boiled eggs. We all just love this tradition. (I will be back next week with a family favorite dish to use up some of those hard boiled easter eggs!) Our second hunt we all bring enough candy/bubbles/playdoh...whatever for the kids who are hunting, then hide them in bunches so that each person gets the same amount of loot. Our third hunt we stuff candy in the plastic eggs with one special Money Egg for the lucky hunter. By the end of our Easter Weekend we are fully stocked with candy for the next few months!

I wanted to share what is on my list for candy this year! These Jelly Beans are amazing!!! Whoever started changing up the old fashioned jelly beans are awesome. I have never been a fan of the old jelly bean taste, but when starburst and lifesaver came out with jelly beans, I was immediately changed. Now I am in love this year! Sweet Tarts has come out with Jelly Beans and they are Mmmm....good!!! They are so sweet and chewy, and full of the yummy flavor of the sweet tarts candy. They are a great new twist to the Jelly Bean. Give them a try!

These Reese's White Chocolate Peanut Butter Eggs were introduced to me by my husband when we got married. These are his favorite. We love the Reese's Eggs, and Trees. They have more peanut butter than chocolate, and that is what we love. The White Chocolate eggs are delicious. Give them a try!

My last one is nothing new...I'm sure all of you love the classic Milk Chocolate Eggs! We just love peanut butter at our house, so the Easter bunny usually leaves us a great assortment of Reese's Eggs! We always have Reese's Eggs lying around for at least the next week! They go really fast!

Happy Easter Candy Shopping!!!

Cheesy Baked Mexi-Rigatoni from Picky Palate

2009-04-02T12:53:00.000-07:00

My picture of this fabulous dish does not give it justice. Maybe just hop on over to Picky Palate for a much more appetizing picture! I have loved every recipe that I have tried from Jenny at Picky Palate. She is very creative and invents amazing recipes. Her desserts are always winners at my house! Check her out at http://www.picky-palate.com/ . This is one of my favorite casseroles. It is so full of flavor with a little bit of spice. We love it at our house. It is a great way to use up some hamburger meat for us. I am always looking for yummy dishes with hamburger, one because it is a cheaper meat, and 2 because my family will eat it. I love the fire roasted tomatoes in this. They are so tasty and juicy. I used Cheddar Cheese because I didn't have the mexican blend. The other thing I love about this recipe is that there are always leftovers...and they are the leftovers that always gets gobbled up and don't sit in your fridge.

Cheesy Baked Mexi-Rigatoni
From Jenny at http://www.picky-palate.com/

1 lb dry Rigatoni pasta or any other pasta of choice
2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 Anaheim green chili’s finely chopped
1 lb lean ground beef
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon Lawry’s garlic salt
1 can cheddar cheese soup
½ Cup milk or half and half
1 Cup sour cream
2 15 oz cans fire roasted tomatoes
Heaping ½ Cup fresh chopped cilantro leaves (add more if you love cilantro)
2 Cups Mexican blend shredded cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cook pasta according to package directions, making sure it’s not overcooked. Drain and set aside.
2. Place olive oil into a large skillet or pan over medium heat. Saute onions and chilies until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in beef, salt, pepper and garlic salt; cook and crumble until browned. Stir in soup, milk, sour cream and tomatoes. Stir until well combined. Reduce heat to low. Stir in cilantro and cooked pasta.
3. Pour mixture into a large 9 x 13 inch baking dish or individual size baking dishes of choice, see my link above. Sprinkle with shredded cheese and bake until cheese is melted and bubbly, about 20-25 minutes.

I hope there aren't too many more cold wintery spring days left, but anyhow...before you breakout the BBQ and get grilling, try out this hearty mexican casserole. It is sure to please your family and warm them right up!

The Ultimate Vanishing Breakfast Rolls

2009-03-30T09:22:00.000-07:00

This recipe goes way back to the good old junior high days in Home Ec. I had forgotten about these little sticky pieces of heaven you can just pop in your mouth. I used to make them all the time when I lived at home. They were a real treat for breakfast, but I would make them for a dessert now. We had playgroup last week and we took these with us. We didn't leave with a single one. They were devoured! They are called vanishing breakfast rolls not only because they are gone in a snap, but because you bite into them and there is nothing inside! The yummy filling of marshmallow rolled in butter and cinnamon and sugar has vanished and melted all over the biscuit, making them sticky and delicious! These are so easy to make. I made them in 30 minutes and was out the door! So, if you are looking for a quick treat try these Vanishing Breakfast Rolls for breakfast or dessert and "wow" your family and friends!

Vanishing Breakfast Rolls

2 pkgs Refridgerated Biscuits (10 rolls per pack)
Marshmallows, Big or Mini
3 Tbsp Butter, melted
Cinnamon & Sugar mix (1/2 cup sugar to 1/2 tsp cinnamon)

Seperate biscuits and smash down with the palm of your hand. If you have big marshmallows you are ready to roll marshmallow in butter, then into cinnamon & sugar. If you have mini marshmallows take a handful and roll them into a ball with your hands, then roll in butter and cinnamon & sugar. Place one buttery, cinnamon & sugar marshmallow on each flattened biscuit and wrap biscuit around and pinch to seal. Place in sprayed cupcake pan seam side down and bake at the degrees according to biscuit package directions. Mine were 400 degrees. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until lightly brown on top. Cool in pan for 5 minutes and serve. Yumm!!!

***In Home Ec we were taught to bake them on a cookie sheet pan, but I have found that they work best in muffin pans. That way your marshmallow filling melts right around your biscuit instead of all over the cookie sheet making a big mess and losing all your filling.

We are having some lovely snowy spring weather here where I live, so if you are like me you are going to need a warm comfort food. Pop these into the oven and enjoy a warm treat!

Happy Spring!!!

German Pancakes with Vanilla Syrup & Buzz Lightyear

2009-03-16T12:27:00.000-07:00

These two recipes came from a good friend of mine. They are both very easy and very good. The vanilla syrup is delicious. I keep it in the fridge and put it on my belgian waffles. It's such a treat.

German Pancakes
2 Tbsp butter
6 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt

Melt butter in a 9 x 13 glass baking dish. In a bowl mix eggs, milk, flour & salt. Pour into buttered baking dish. Bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes until lightly brown.

Vanilla Syrup
1 cup whipping cream
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 tsp vanilla

Combine all ingredients in a medium pan. Cook on low until butter is melted and sugar is dissolved. Don't boil. Beat until desired consistency. (I didn't have whipping cream when I made it, but I used whole milk. It tasted just fine, just a little runny). You can also use almond extract. I ran out of vanilla and used a little almond and it added a little kick to it.

My little boy turned 2 last week. He loves Buzz Lightyear and wanted to have a Buzz cake. This is what I came up with. I think it turned out great! I will never forget the look on his face when he saw it. I used a boxed cake mix and baked it in a glass bowl. I made homemade marshmallow fondant that I colored orange to cover my planet. This was my first experience using fondant and it went pretty good. I found a great website that walked me through it. If any of you are have any questions about what I did, leave a comment and I'll get back to you.

Here are a few ideas for St. Patrick's day. For breakfast, I will be making green pancakes and green milk. In the afternoon we will make green playdough and make shamrock cookies. For dinner we'll be having lots of green and for dessert, mint chocolate chip ice cream. I will be hiding green shamrocks throughout the house and whoever finds the most, will recieve a lucky charm. I'm sure many of you have good ideas too! Feel free to share them in your comments.

Tea Party Time with Chocolate Covered Strawberries and Strawberry Lemonade

2009-03-06T13:27:00.000-08:00

Last night we had such a fun Tea Party (without the tea) at an annual celebration for the ladies in my church. Everyone showed up with a Tea Party hat that was decorated to spotlight themselves. We had a great time getting to know one another better, and of course enjoyed yummy food. We ate Chicken Salad Sandwiches, pastas, veggies, fruit salads, and of course dessert! I made these delicious Chocolate Covered Strawberries. They were amazing. They were so easy too! I am a lover of Symphony's Milk Chocolate, so I knew that it wouldn't let me down. I love the chocolate/strawberry combo. I love to bite into the smooth milk chocolate and the juicy strawberry. The Symphony Chocolate was perfect! I obviously was making these for a large group, but you can definitely adjust for a smaller batch.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

60 Strawberries
7 King Size Symphony Milk Chocolate Bars
1 1/2 cups White Chocolate morsels (optional)

Wash and dry strawberries. Melt your chocolate either in the microwave stirring after 1 minute incriments, or in a double boiler. I did mine in the microwave and it was perfect. I also did 4 bars to start with. I didn't want to burn the chocolate by having too much, and I wanted to be sure to get my strawberries dipped before it set up. (If you do it in the double boiler, you won't have to worry about that, and you will be able to melt all of the chocolate at the same time). When your chocolate is melted hold your strawberry by the stem and dip in chocolate so it covers almost all of the red. I like a little bit of red showing. Twirl to get excess chocolate to roll off of the strawberry. Place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Dip remaining strawberries. When the chocolate has set, you can drizzle with white chocolate if you want your strawberries to look a little more fancy. Melt chocolate either in microwave or double boiler and spoon into ziploc bag. Release all the air and cut a small hole in one of the corners. Squeeze white chocolate and decorate strawberries as desired. I just did the lines strait across.

I was also in charge of the drink. We did Strawberry Lemonade, and wow, was it good. It was also really easy, and it turned out just beautiful! The juice from the strawberries gave it a perfect strawberry kick to the lemonade.

Strawberry Lemonade

2- 2 Liter bottles Lemonade (yellow)
1- 24 oz. tub sliced, with sugar Strawberries (found in the frozen dept.)
Ice

Allow your strawberries time to fully defrost. I placed mine in the fridge the night before. Combine lemonade, strawberries, and ice (to your liking). Serve!

This was our lovely display of desserts. I love these tiered racks. They are perfect for entertaining. I don't have one of my own, but my mother-in-law has been kind to let me borrow hers for a few occasions. They really make a beautiful setting. We also had some mini sugar cookies and cream puffs drizzled with chocolate syrup. Perfect Tea Party foods!

Delicious Poppy Seed Bread with Orange Almond Glaze!

2009-02-26T09:19:00.000-08:00

I absolutely love Poppy Seed Breads & Cakes! This is my all time favorite Poppy Seed bread recipe. It just melts in your mouth, and I love the taste of the almond and orange juice flavor that just soaks into the bread. This recipe comes from the Lion House Desserts Cook Book. I love making this bread for neighbors or friends who have just moved into a new home, welcomed a new baby, someone who is ill, or just because! It always gets great reviews.

Janell's Poppy Seed Bread
Lion House Desserts Cook Book

1/4 cup butter, melted
3 1/3 Tbsp oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp poppy seeds

Orange almond Glaze
1 Tbsp orange juice
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/4 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour an 8X4-inch loaf pan and set aside. In a large mixing bowl cream together butter, oil, eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, and almond extract. In a separate bowl mix together flour, salt, baking powder, and poppy seeds. Add this mixture to the first and mix until well blended, but do not overmix. (Overmixing causes tunnels and a coarse texture.) Pour into loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes. Serve plain or, while bread is still hot, brush with several coats of Orange Almond Glaze (made by mixing all ingredients together in small bowl.) Makes 1 loaf.

Enjoy!!!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

2009-02-23T08:41:00.001-08:00

I can't believe that this is the last week in February! I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to spring. We had some beautiful weather the end of last week and we spent hours playing at the park soaking up the sun. Here is another freezer meal recipe for all of you. It is super easy and so yummy!

Chicken Tortilla Soup
2 can refried beans
2 cans black beans, drained
2 cans corn with juice
2 cans chicken broth
Mix in pot. Bring to a boil and add:
4 chicken breasts, cooked & chopped
2 cups salsa
Tomato, spice mixture:
In a blender, combine and add to soup:
28 oz. diced tomatoes
3 tomatillos
1 jalapeno - seeds out
1/2 white onion
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cumin
1/2 bunch cilantro

Cool & place in 3 freezer bags. Thaw and heat through. Top with cheese, sour cream & tortilla chips.

To answer a couple questions about the Symphony Pie, yes, you can use 2 of the smaller Symphony bars. If you use Resees, you can really use how ever many you want. It depends on how peanut buttery you want it. My sister used 8 of the big cups for hers. If you have any other questions regarding any of our recipes, feel free to leave us a comment and we will try to respond quickly!

Marbled Cheesecake Hearts

2009-02-10T14:22:00.000-08:00

Last week we went to a ward activity and signed up to bring a dessert. I wanted to do something a little different than cookies or brownies. In my search for a new dessert, I found this in The Essential Mormon Cookbook. I loved it! My husband LOVES cheesecake, but I never make it. This recipe was pretty easy and oh so yummy! I started out using a small heart cookie cutter, but it took a little while to get it out without messing it up, so I cut them into small squares. There weren't any left on the plate at the end of the night.

Marbled Cheesecake Hearts
Chocolate Cookie Crust
2 cups finely crushed Oreo cookies
3 Tablespoons butter or margarine melted

Line a 9x13 baking pan with heavy foil. Grease foil. Combine crumbs and butter. Press firmly into pan (I love the crust so I used about 3 cups crushed cookies and 3 1/2 Tbsp butter).

Filling
3 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 (1 oz) squares unsweetened chocolate melted

In a large bowl beat cream cheese until fluffy. Add sweetened condensed milk and beat until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Pour 3/4 of batter evenly over chocolate crust. Stir melted chocolate into remaining batter. Place spoonfuls of chocolate batter over the vanilla batter. Take a butter knife and swirl chocolate batter through vanilla batter gently to give marbleized look. Bake at 300 for 45 - 50 minutes or until set (I cooked mine for 40 minutes). Cool. Chill for several hours until firm. Use foil to lift out of pan. Use a heart cookie cutter to make heart shapes or simply cut into squares. Store covered in refrigerator.

You can get The Essential Mormon Cookbook at many bookstores including Deseret Book and Seagul Book & Tape. It is filled with wonderful recipes for all seasons.

Mom's FANTASTIC Chicken Enchiladas!!!

2009-02-04T09:26:00.000-08:00

I absolutely LOVE this recipe for Chicken Enchilada's. It is super simple and oh, so tasty! These are the only type of Enchiladas that I remember my mom making. Now that I am married I have been introduced to several favorite Enchilada recipes, but this one is special, because it takes me back to home. I remember helping my mom several times to assemble these yummy enchiladas. My mom is a great cook, and makes wonderful meals. Thanks mom for sharing some great recipes with me. My mom probably won't see this, because she doesn't really get into the computer stuff, but anyhow... I love you Mom!

Mom's Chicken Enchiladas

1 lb. cooked and cubed chicken / or 1 can canned chicken

1 large can red enchilada sauce (I always go with the mild for the kids)

1 small can diced green chilis

shredded cheddar cheese

8 medium tortillas

Combine chicken, and green chilis in medium bowl. (I only use about half of a can of green chilis, but you know what spice you can handle.) Add enchilada sauce just until it is a good consistency. You don't want your filling to be too runny, but not too chunky. (I usually use 1/4- 1/2 of the can.) Ladle about 2 spoon-fuls of the enchilada sauce in a 9X13 greased pan and spread evenly. To assemble the enchiladas fill your tortilla with about 1/2 cup filling and sprinkle with cheese. Roll up tightly and place in pan. Fill the remaining tortillas. When enchiladas are assembled cover with remaining sauce. I like to get sauce between each enchilada. I love them really saucy! Sprinkle the top with cheese to your liking. Cover with foil and cook at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes or until cooked through and sauce is bubbling around the edges. Serve garnished with sour cream and lettuce. I love eating my freezer corn with this meal. It makes for a great combo! Enjoy, and thanks Mom!

Peanut Butter KISS Cookies...Perfect for all your little sweethearts!

2009-01-29T12:34:00.000-08:00

We love these little treasures at our house, and they don't stick around for very long. We've been making these for years. We left them for Santa this year, and he of course, ate them right up! The Hershey's Kisses are a perfect combination with the peanut butter. We like to use the Caramel Hershey's Kisses. We love the gooey center that melts right in your mouth. If you are looking for a sweet treat for all your little kissable sweethearts this year, this one is perfect. It's simple, cute, and sweet!

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

Beat together:

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup peanut butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

Stir in remaining until combined:

1/4 tsp salt

1 3/4 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

Roll into balls and roll in sugar. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes. You know they are done when the cookie starts cracking, and starts to get a little brown around the edges. Remove from oven and place one Hershey's Kiss in the middle of each cookie and press down so that the cookie comes up around the kiss and the kiss sinks right in. Enjoy!!!

I ran out of brown sugar as I was making these cookies, and because I was baking them for a class I was going to, I had to find a substitute. I found a recipe to make brown sugar. It is ingenious! I'm sure no one else runs out of brown sugar but me, but if you do, there is hope!!! I have an awesome cookbook called Cooking from My Pantry that has great tips and recipes for emergencies and using your food storage. I knew this book could save me.

Brown Sugar recipe:

1 cup granulated sugar

2 Tbsp molasses

This equals 1 cup packed brown sugar. Stir with a fork. The molasses taste is gone after the item is baked.

Honey Glazed Chicken & Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies

2009-01-21T09:22:00.000-08:00

My family just got back from spending the weekend in Zion National Park. It was absolutely beautiful! We left the Salt Lake Valley & its yucky air behind to enjoy breathtaking views & clear blue skies. The temperature was 70 on Sunday & 67 on Monday. I'm ready to pack up & move there today! I love Southern Utah. The picture above was the Zion Canyon overlook. Below was the view from our hotel. We had such a fun time!

On to some yummy recipes. This first one is from my sister-in-law. I was at her house one day when she pulled this out of the oven & knew it was a recipe I had to have. Honey Glazed Chicken

1/2 cup flour

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 cup butter

4 chicken breasts (you could use chicken tenders too! I used about 3 of the frozen chicken breasts from Costco cut up)

Preheat oven to 350. Mix flour, salt and cayenne pepper together in a large ziploc bag. Drop chicken in bag and shake to coat. Melt butter and place in a 9 x 13 baking dish. Place flour coated chicken in baking dish and turn to coat both sides with butter. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes.

Honey Glaze Sauce

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp curry powder

1/4 cup butter, melted

Combine all ingredients. Pour over chicken until well coated. Bake for an additional 45 minutes. Serve over rice. (Keep your eye on it, mine started to burn a little bit).

This recipe came from one of my favorite cookbooks: The Domestic Art. It is a collection of recipes gathered by Patricia Schocker Wright. They are so good! I wish I had some to eat right now.

Fae's Chocolate-Marshmallow Cookies

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

mini-marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350. Cream shortening and sugar; add egg, milk, and vanilla. Stir in flour, cocoa, soda, baking powder, and salt. Bake for 10 minutes then remove from oven and top each with 2-3 marshmallows (I cute my marshmallows in half and put about 10 on). Return to oven for 1 minute. While warm, top with chocolate frosting.

Chocolate Frosting

1 square unsweetened chocolate

1/4 cup margarine

1/4 cup milk

3 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Melt chocolate, then add margarine and milk. Bring to a boil. Stir while boiling for 1 minute. Sift in powdered sugar, add vanilla. Stir well.

Pizza Pockets & a Choo-choo Train Birthday Cake

2009-01-08T14:13:00.000-08:00

We had a birthday party for my 3 year old over the weekend. It was a lot of fun. A few months ago I had planned to throw him a Dinosaur party, because he was loving dinosaurs at the time. That soon changed, and I was stumped as to what kind of party to have. Then it came to me. He had never had his own train set. He loves trains, and immediately plays with the trains whenever we go play at his friends'. So we threw him a Choo-choo train birthday party. He was in heaven when he saw his cake, but that didn't even compare to when he opened his birthday present from us of his Thomas & Friends Train set. He was so excited, and was done opening presents after that. It even took some time to get him to come blow out the candles on his birthday cake. My husband finely said "fire", and he came running! He played with his train set the rest of the night, and took them to bed with him. Funny little guy! We served a bunch of finger foods at his party. My sister, (the one that I share this blog with) came to the party. It was fun to be in the same kitchen together. I really can't take the credit for these awesome pizza pockets, because she ended up making them for me while I was building the cake. They were yummy, and easy. They would make a perfect fried appetizer for football watching.

Pizza Pockets

1 pkg Egg Roll Wrappers (these are found in the produce dept., by the authentic foods.)
Spaghetti Sauce
Mozzarella Cheese
Pepperoni's
Oil for frying

Lay out your Egg Roll Square so it looks like a diamond and assemble filling in the order listed above right across the center horizontally. Use about 1 Tbsp sauce, 1 handful of cheese, and 2 pepperoni's for each roll. Then fold up the roll just like an envelope bringing the bottom corner to the center first, then the 2 sides folded in, and close the roll bringing the top corner down to close envelope off. Fry at 350 degrees in oil for a total of about 2-3 minutes browning each side. Remove and drain on paper towels. Serve with warm marinara sauce.

Yes, I left out the "d" on Birthday! No one even noticed. I didn't even notice until after the party was over. This Choo-choo train birthday cake was super simple, and so kid friendly. All the kids were drooling over all the yummy sweets. I got the idea from howdini.com. Go here to watch a how-to video for this cake: http://www.howdini.com/howdini-video-7074034.html .

I did do mine a little different. I used 4 mini loaf pans for my cars instead of one large loaf pan cut in 4's. This made it a lot easier for frosting, because you don't have to deal with the crumbs mixing with the frosting. I frosted mine with the packaged frostings to make it easier. I colored them to make them even more kid-friendly. I used 2 cake mixes. Milk Chocolate cake mix for the engine cake made in a large loaf pan and one of the minis, then a Rainbow cake mix for the other 3 cars. I actually got 4 minis out of the Rainbow cake, but didn't have room on my track for it. You can pretty much use whatever candy you can imagine. I used colored licorice to outline the cars, and for the front of the engine. Gummy LifeSavers and Tootsie Rolls for the wheels. Reese's PB cups for the smoke stack. Crushed Oreos for the coal on the engine. The cargo was M&M's, Whoppers, Jelly Beans, & Tootsie Rolls. Fun, fun birthday cake for all your Choo-choo train lovers out there!

Wrapping Up The Holiday's with Symphony Pie!

2008-12-30T13:45:00.000-08:00

I have had some major bloggers block. We have been so busy this holiday season, as have all of you, but I have really struggled posting lately. My sister has bailed me out. I am pregnant, and I have no desire to look at food, and struggle making it. My family has suffered, that's for sure. It has been nice having so many parties and get togethers so that I don't have to cook as much. Now with the holiday's coming to a close, I've got to get back in the groove of making and planning meals. The thought really makes me ill. I like to eat what sounds good to me, but the rest of the family has to like it too. It's definitely a problem, and I can't wait for it to be over. I shouldn't complain. I have very easy pregnancies, compared to my sisters'. The beginning is my hardest part. On to this creamy Symphony pie dessert!

This is my GO TO dessert when I need something speedy, and delicious! I always make this pie to go along with a meal for a neighbor. You put it together in the morning, pop it in the freezer, and don't have to worry about it until you are ready to eat it, or deliver it. I got this recipe from an awesome neighbor who brought it to me after I had my first child. My husband and I fell in love with the dessert and HAD to have the recipe. We were sure that it was complicated, and had some special ingredients in it. We couldn't believe how easy it was. We have tried it several ways, but this is our favorite.

Symphony Pie

1 King Size Symphony bar (milk chocolate or toffee chip)
1/4 cup water
1 8 oz. tub Cool Whip
Graham Cracker Pie Crust

Break up Symphony bar and add water in large microwave safe bowl. Heat in microwave for 45 seconds. Remove and mix with spoon so that all of the chocolate is melted. Add Cool Whip and mix very well. I do this for about five minutes making sure that all of the chocolate is incorporated. Pour chocolate mixture into Graham Cracker Pie Crust and spread evenly. Cover and freeze for 3 hours before served. It will stay good in the freezer for weeks, but I guarantee you that it won't last that long.

***We prefer the Milk Chocolate over the toffee, but they are both fantastic. We stock up on the Symphony bars when they go for 10 for $10. Then we always have them on hand when we need them. This is a great pie to experiment with. We have done a Reese's pie with about 8-10 cups, made the exact same way. It was delicious.

Enjoy!!! Happy New Year!

Candy Cane Ice Cream Sandwich Dessert & BIG HUNK

2008-12-23T17:49:00.001-08:00

Well, Christmas is almost upon us. We've had my husband's family in town this weekend and it's been full of lots of good food. We're the only ones with a house, so we've been the headquarters for all of our activities and meals. We've had a lot of fun! This dessert is now one of my favorites. I made some changes in my normal recipe for this to make it more, "Christmasy". It was very good.

Peppermint Ice Cream Sandwich Dessert
10 Fat Boy ice cream sandwiches
12 ounces cool whip
1/4 -1/2 cup crushed candy canes (I crush them in a food chopper or processor)
Chocolate Syrup

Unwrap ice cream sandwiches and place in a 9x13 baking dish. I can fit 2 1/2 sandwiches on each row. Take crushed candy canes and stir into cool whip. Once mixed, spread evenly over ice cream sandwiches. Drizzle chocolate syrup over cool whip. Top with pieces of candy cane. Place in freezer until ready to serve.

Here's another favorite treat. I will never buy a Big Hunk candy bar from the store again. This is soooo soft and yummy. I got this recipe from a friend in my ward. She brought it to a cookies exchange a couple years ago and was so kind to share the recipe with me.

Homemade BIG HUNK

1 larger bottle Planters Dry Roasted Peanuts (lightly salted)

3 smaller jars Kraft Marshmallow Cream

2 1/4 cups light corn syrup

2 1/4 cups sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

6 Tbsp butter, melted

1/4 tsp salt

Butter a large cookie sheet. Scatter peanuts equally on cookie sheet. Place marshmallow cream in a LARGE bowl, set aside. In a large saucepan, combine corn syrup and sugar. Place over high heat. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon until mixture comes to a boil. Clip on candy thermometer. Cook to 280 degrees F, or to soft crack stage. Remover from heat and let stand 2 minutes undisturbed. Without scraping, pour entire batch into marshmallow cream and stir with a wooden spoon until smooth. Add butter, vanilla, and salt and stir with wooden spoon until butter in incorporated. Pour into prepared pan and spread evenly across peanuts. Allow to stand at room temperature until firm, about 3 hours. Cut and wrap in wax paper.

Holiday Treats

2008-12-17T08:45:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that Christmas is in a week! We've been getting a lot of snow in Utah this week. It's fun to look out the window and see it falling. My kids love it! I've let them go out and play in it a few times. It's amazing how cold it is and they still have smiles on their faces. Here are a few holiday treats. The first is a Peppermint Oreo Ice cream and the second is Muddy Buddies with a little kick!

For my birthday a few weeks ago I got an ice cream/sorbet maker. I used the simple vanilla ice cream recipe that was included and added some peppermint oreo's that I found at Walmart. These Oreo's are so good! I don't like regular Oreo's unless they are in ice cream or shakes. I couldn't stop eating these ones! They are so yummy! I think that next time I make this, I will add some crushed candy cane on the top.

Peppermint Oreo Ice Cream

1 cup whole milk, well chilled

3/4 cup sugar

2 cups heavy cream, well chilled

1-2 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup coarsely chopped Peppermint Oreo cookies

In a bowl, mix milk and sugar until sugar is dissolved. Stir in heavy cream and vanilla. Place freezer bowl on machine and turn on. Slowly pour mixture in through ingredient spout and let mix until thickened, about 25-30 minutes. Add chopped Oreo's to mixture during last 5 minutes of mixing.

Christmas Muddy Buddies(Recipe taken from Rice Chex Cereal box)

9 cups Rice Chex cereal

1 cup smisweet chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate)

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 powdered sugar

In a microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter uncovered on High 1 minute; stir. Microave about 30 second more or until mixture can be stirred smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Pour into 2 gallon resealable plastic bag. Add powdered sugar. Seal bag and shake until well coated. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.

Christmas kick: Add 1/2 bag M&M candies (This could be done at any holiday with M&M holiday candies).

**Special note: I made a mistake on the hot fudge recipe that I posted last week. The measurements of the evaporated milk should be 2 2/3 cups and the powdered sugar should be 4 cups. It still tastes good with the other measurements, but it's better with all of them. Sorry about that.

Coming Soon: Homemade BIG HUNK & Peppermint Ice Cream Sandwich Dessert.

Christmas Candy Cane Cookies

2008-12-11T13:03:00.000-08:00

I absolutely love these Candy Cane Cookies! With just a hint of peppermint, these sugar cookies make a great side to a nice cup of Hot Chocolate on a cold Christmas night. All you need is your favorite Sugar Cookie recipe, red food coloring, peppermint extract, sprinkles, and you can jazz up a plain old sugar cookie! I got this idea from the amazing Sandra Lee on the Food Network a few years ago, and I haven't missed a Christmas without making them. I will include Sandra Lee's original recipe in which she uses a packaged Sugar Cookie Mix. I know you will love these yummy Candy Cane Cookies, and the kids will eat them right up!

Candy Cane Cookies
By: Sandra Lee

1 Sugar Cookie Mix (Betty Crocker)
1/2 Stick butter (melt for 20 sec. in microwave)
1 egg
1/3 cup soft cream cheese
1/2 cup flour
Red Food Coloring
1/2 tsp peppermint extract

Combine first 5 ingredients in large mixing bowl until well blended. Split dough in half and place in seperate bowls. Add almost a whole container of red food coloring to one half of dough, and mix very well so that the die is spread throughout. Add the peppermint extract to the other half of the dough and mix well. For each cookie you will need about a 1-inch ball of peppermint dough and a 1-inch ball of red dough rolled into 1/4 inch wide ropes and about 4 inches long. Twist together and form a candy cane, (pictured above). Spinkle with Christmas sprinkles if desired. Bake at 325 degrees for 12 minutes.

***You can use any sugar cookie dough with these. I always use my favorite Sour Cream Sugar Cookie recipe found here: http://mysisterscucina.blogspot.com/2008/10/halloween-night-menu.html . (You will have to scroll to the bottom of the post).

Serve with some Hot Chocolate and snuggle up to a good Christmas movie! If you are looking for a great Christmas movie to snuggle up to, some of our favorites are: White Christmas, Holiday Inn, Smokey Mountain Christmas, Polar Express, and Once & Twice Upon A Christmas.

Merry Christmas!!!

Holiday Fudge & Gift Ideas

2008-12-09T13:57:00.000-08:00

The first week of December is done. I, along with many of you, am trying to get my neighbor gifts put together and delivered so that I can enjoy the rest of the month with my family. Here are a couple ideas for you. The first is a wonderful hot fudge recipe that comes from my aunt. She makes it every year for and puts them in a small ziploc or glad storage container and ties it with a bow. I decided to do it a couple years ago and it was a hit.

Hot Fudge
2 cubes butter
2 2/3 cup evaporated milk
1 package semi-sweet chocolate chips (do not substitute milk chocolate chips)
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Place butter, evaporated milk and chocolate chips in pot. Cook over medium high heat until butter is melted. Add powdered sugar. Bring to a boil and boil for 8 minutes stirring constantly. Turn of heat and add vanilla. Let sit, stirring occasionally and enjoy on ice cream with your favorite toppins. ( It's very good on pepermint ice cream with a chocolate brownie on the side).

Holiday M & M's
This is what I am doing for my neighbors this year. I had a friend that did this a few years ago and I thought it was so cute. Whenever I eat M & M's, I always think of this little poem. I found the poem on one of my favorite webites, http://www.sugardoodle.net/ . I will put it here, but be sure to check out this website.

As you hold these candies in your hand

And turn them, you will see

The 'M' becomes a 'W',

An 'E', and then a '3'.

They tell the Christmas Story--

I'm sure it's one you know.

It took place in a stable

A long, long time ago.

The 'E' is for the East,

Where the star shone so bright.

The 'M' is for the Manger,

where the Baby Jesus slept at night.

The '3' is for the Wisemen,

Bearing gifts, with which they came.

'W' is for Worship, Hallelujah!

Praise His Name!

So as you eat these candies

Or share them with a friend,

Remember the meaning of Christmas:

It's a love that never ends.

Here are a few ideas and I will post a few more in the next day or two! Happy Holidays!

Yummy, Chewy Andes Peppermint Crunch Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

2008-12-03T15:54:00.000-08:00

We're back! After a fun filled Thanksgiving filled with food, family, & fun, I'm ready to get back to blogging. We had a brother return home from an LDS Mission in Brazil over the weekend. It was great to see him, talk to him, and hear about the last 2 years of his life where he changed many lives. It made for a great Thanksgiving celebration! I love Christmas! I love baking during Christmas. I have my favorites that I bake every year. I will be baking a few batches of my favorite Peppermint Candy Cane Cookies, Andes Mint Cookies, Cinnamon Rolls, Peanut Butter Balls, and I'm sure I am missing something else. I love the aroma of homemade sweets during the holidays. Especially when they have the tastes of Christmas as peppermint, mint, cinnamon, and peanut butter and chocolate fit in all year round...right!?!

This little cookie I put together was awesome! I used Prudy's recipe for her Chewy Oatmeal Cookies. If you can't tell, I love Prudence Pennywise's blog! She has got amazing recipes. Click her link on our sidebar for a sight to see! Her Chewy Oatmeal Cookies were a perfect match for my Andes Peppermint Crunch Chips I snagged last year after the season. I have been waiting all year to use them. The time has come, and they are delish! With a great peppermint taste, and a little crunch to top them off. They were perfect in the Chewy Oatmeal Cookies! I also threw in some chocolate chips that really completed this cookie. My good friend introduced me to some chunky chocolate chips you can get in the grocery store. The brand is Gitard, and they are big chocolate chips. I love them, and they make such a difference in cookies. Try them out. They can be pricey, but just watch the sales. They are worth it! So if you are in the mood for some awesome Chocolate Chip cookies this season, jazz them up with Andes Peppermint Crunch Chips!

Chewy Oatmeal Cookies from Prudence Pennywise, Recipe found here: http://prudencepennywise.blogspot.com/2008/09/fall-colored-chewy-oatmeal-m-and-m.html

Add Andes Peppermint Crunch Chips and Chocolate Chips to your liking. Serve with milk. Chewy, Pepperminty, Chocolatey, Yum!!!

The Best Ever Sweet Potato Casserole

2008-11-25T06:49:00.000-08:00

Shortly after my husband and I were married we went on a family vacation to Florida to visit family. We were there in the beginning months of December so we celebrated Christmas with them while we were there. My sister-in-law had an awesome Christmas Party where she invited all of her family, who kindly shared this recipe with our family. We were all drooling over it at the party, and couldn't believe that sweet potatoes could taste that good. When we arrived home we had to have this recipe for our Christmas dinner and we have been making it ever since. My husband who is not a big fan of Sweet Potatoes, loves this casserole. We took it to my families Thanksgiving 2 years ago, and boy was it a hit! Everyone gobbled it right up! It is made with the canned yams, which sure cuts back on time. Don't look too closely at the amount of butter, but realize that you probably could cut back a little. The topping is amazing! It will be the perfect side for your Thanksgiving dinner just like it will me for mine!!!

Sweet Potato Casserole

1 cup milk

2 Tbsp cornstarch

1 Larg can Yams, pour 1/2 juice off and mash the yams

3/4 stick of butter, melted and cooled

dash of cinnamon

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs well beaten

Combine milk and cornstarch and whisk together until cornstarch is dissolved. Pour yams in a large mixing bowl and mash well. Add remaining ingredients, including milk and cornstarch mixture, and beat well. Pour in greased 9X13 pan and bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes or until it sets pretty good. I test mine just like you would a pumpkin pie, with a knife in the middle to check if it is set. While that is baking, mix the following ingredients together for the topping.

1 cup crushed cornflakes

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts are best)

1/2 cup brown sugar

Add the topping to the mixture and bake for about another 10-15 minutes.

***I used Bran Flakes instead of cornflakes, and they worked well. They are healthier too!!! If you are doubling the recipe, bake in a larger pan, such as a lasagna dish or cookie sheet pan. If you double and bake in 9X13 pan it will take much longer than the normal baking time.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Cranberry Casserole & Cranberry Pumpkin Bread

2008-11-22T08:29:00.000-08:00

If you are looking for an awesome casserole to serve at your Thanksgiving dinner, this is the one!!! It is amazing! The sweet & tarty cranberries sugared with crunchy chunks of apples are delicious. The carmelized topping with pecans and oats just top this casserole off! It really is amazing! We look forward to this time of year so that we can eat this tasty casserole. This recipe comes from my husband's side. I have never been a fan of cranberries, until I was introduced to Cranberry Casserole. We made this for my family's Thanksgiving dinner 2 years ago, and boy was it a hit. We will be taking it again this year along with our Sweet Potato Casserole, which will be coming on monday...another casserole you do not want to miss out on. I halfed the recipe for my family of 4, but I will be doubling it for next week. Try a half batch now, then WOW your Thankgiving day guests! This casserole will not dissapoint you!

I combined my apple chunks, cranberries & sugar in the morning and let it sit all day. I have done this the night before too. You need to let it sit for some time so that the sugar dissolves and coats the apples and cranberries real well, stirring every once in a while. On to this wonderful recipe!

Cranberry Casserole

3 cups apples, chopped & unpeeled

2 cups cranberries, whole & washed

1 1/2 cups white sugar

Mix together and set aside. It is best to combine the night before and cover over night. You can also combine in the morning. Just make sure it sits long enough to dissolve the sugar completely to make a gooey syrup.

Topping:

1 1/2 cups oatmeal

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1 stick butter (melted)

Combine topping ingredients and mix well. Place on top of apples and cranberries. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

***If your apples and cranberries are not juicy enough, add 1/2 cup water or apple juice before you cover with the topping. I have never had to do that. There is always plenty of juice. I realize that 1 hour of baking time takes away your oven, but you can bake it ahead of time and warm it up in the oven for 10 minutes before you serve. It is perfect!

If you have an over abundance of cranberries, use them in this delicious Cranberry Pumpkin Bread. It is awesome! I found this recipe at The Sisters' Cafe. Go to their link in our side bar. These sisters have got great recipes. We had quite the scare this week when my 3 year old decided to wander way too far from home. We were searching for him for 20 minutes. It was the worst feeling as a mother. I never want it to happen again, but I know that this was not the first time. I made this bread for a few people who came to help me search. It was a perfect treat with a thank you card for all their help. Thank you to Melanie at My Sisters' Cafe for the recipe. I will be making this for years to come. I just wish that I had some mini loaf pans. This recipe made 3 large pans. I put one in my freezer to take to my family this week. Find the recipe here: http://sisterscafe.blogspot.com/2008/11/cranberry-pumpkin-bread.html

Coming Monday... The Best Ever Sweet Potato Casserole!!!

Sweet & Sour Meatballs & Rolo Cookies

2008-11-21T12:48:00.000-08:00

Here is another excellent freezer meal! My boys devoured it. I got this recipe from a good friend who does freezer meals with her sister. They've been great to share their recipes with me. Thanks Alicia & Tori.

Sweet & Sour Meatballs
1 bag frozen meatballs (you can make your own).
1/2 c brown sugar
2 Tbsp corstarch
1 cup water
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c vinegar
1/4 c ketchup
1/2 c chunked onion
1 cup chunked red & green bell pepper

Mix brown sugar & cornstarch. Add water, salt, vinegar, and ketchup and heat to boiling. Reduce heat, cook & stir until thick. Add meatballs & simmer 15 minutes. Add onion & peppers. Remove from heat and let cool. When cooled, place in freezer bag. When ready to eat, thaw, heat in crockpot and serve over rice.

On to dessert....

These cookies are a family favorite. I made them last weekend to take to a neighborhood cookie bake off. We took 2nd, but I think that was because they weren't warm. The warm caramel in the middle gives these cookies a nice surprise. A big thanks to Kristy who shared this recipe with our family.

Rolo Cookies
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
Rolo candy pieces

Cream butter and sugars together. Add eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix flour, cocoa & baking soda. Add flour mixture to butter mixture. Mix well. Wrap rolo in a spoonful of dough. Roll in sugar. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.

Fabulous Butternut Squash Soup

2008-11-18T14:27:00.000-08:00

This really is fabulous! When I had my second child my neighbor brought me this amazing soup. She not only shared with me the recipe, but she shared her Family Cookbook with me. It is an awesome cookbook. Any recipe that I have tried has been great! I always know that I can find a perfect recipe in that cookbook. This soup warms you from the inside out! It is perfect for a cold day. I love to serve it with my favorite Lion House rolls, but because of time, I made up these quick breadsticks, that were delicious for dipping. The spices in this are perfect. Thinking about this soup always makes my mouth water. The cream cheese makes it so creamy and rich. This soup also freezes very nicely. I got a 4 pound squash so I once and a halfed my recipe. I have just enough for another meal in the freezer. I love working hard once for 2 meals. It really is a simple recipe for how good it tastes. It really is fabulous! So, if you still have butternut squash that needs to be used, or if you are just like me and can't resist this soup, go buy a butternut squash. It is well worth every pound!

Fabulous Butternut Squash Soup

1 small onion, chopped
1/4 cup butter
6 cups butternut squash (about 2 pounds), peeled and cubed
3 cups water
4 cubes chicken bouillon
1 tsp seasoned salt (Season-all, etc.)
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/8 tsp ground cayenne pepper (less if you don't like it too spicy)
a dash nutmeg (optional)
1 (8 ounce) pkg cream cheese (2 packages for a richer soup)

In a large saucepan, sautee onions in butter until tender. Add squash, water, bouillon, and herbs. Bring to boil; cook 20 minutes, or until squash is tender. Add cream cheese. Puree squash and cream cheese in a blender or food processor in batches until smooth. Return to saucepan, and heat through. Do not allow to boil.

***I always add extra cream cheese. I like it rich! You will love every drop! We had a little boy licking up the drips off the table. To him, this soup was "good stuff"!

Coming soon, perfect side dishes for your Thankgiving Feast!

Your guests will be licking off their plates!

Pumpkin Pie Squares & a Sweet Swap

2008-11-14T10:17:00.000-08:00

I made these little pumpkin pie squares for a sweet swap that I hosted last night. They were heavenly. If you love pumpkin pie, you will love these! The coconut, graham cracker crumbs, & pecans just add so much to these bars. With a crunchy crust, a soft pumpkin center, and a chewy topping...what could be better!!! I love pumpkin and coconut. My husband doesn't care for either, so this was a perfect opportunity for me to make something that I love, and be able to swap mine for something that he would enjoy. We had some great treats. Some of the yummy sweets were Oh Henry Bars, Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies, Layered Cookies, & Fudge Jumbles. It was a lot of fun. If any of you are up for a sweet swap, this is the perfect time to do it with the holidays right around the corner. If you do a cookie swap, it is easy to freeze your cookies and pull them out when you have unexpected company. Just make sure that you freeze them in freezer ziplocs.

My mother-in-law introduced me to this recipe. It was on the Eagle Brand web site. They have got some great festive treats that will be perfect for the holidays. Check it out at www.eaglebrand.com .

Pumpkin Pie Squares
Eagle Brand

1/4 cup butter (melted)
1 1/3 cup coconut
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 cup finely chopped pecans
1 can pumpkin (2 cups)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 eggs
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, or 350 degrees for glass dish. In medium bowl combine butter, coconut, graham cracker crumbs & nuts. Mix well. Reserving 1/3 of the crumb mixture press remainder on bottom of ungreased 13x9 pan. In large bowl, combine remaining except reserved mixture; mix well. Pour over prepared crust. Top with reserved crumb mixture. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or til knife inserted comes out clean. Cool. Serve warm or chilled. Store leftovers in the fridge.

***I made extra topping, because it was delicious. I also used 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice instead of 1/2 tsp each of ginger and nutmeg. (I didn't have the ginger). My improvising worked out well. Enjoy!!!

Best Potato Soup Ever & Apple Crisp

2008-11-12T11:34:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that November is half way over! It seems like time is moving so fast these days. The other day I went to my first Parent Teacher Conference for my kindergartener. I can't believe that I'm old enough to be going to those. This was the first of many in the years to come. It went well. My oldest is a ball full of energy and seems to struggle a little with holding still and focusing for long periods of time. His teacher brought this up but she also said that he is a great friend. I'm thankful for that. He's a good kid. On to the food. I made this AMAZING Baked Potato Soup on Sunday night. It was absolutely fabulous. I called my friend to thank her for the recipe even before we sat down to eat it. A big thanks to Heather from Cooking Divas for this awesome recipe. We also had some homemade french bread that I posted a couple weeks ago. (Thanks again to Laura at Real Mom Kitchen for that great recipe). They were perfect together. Thanks for the wonderful recipes! I know that you'll all love this one!

Best Baked Potato Soup Ever
1-2 lbs. Bacon
2/3 cups butter
2/3 cups flour
5 cups milk
2 cups chicken broth
4-8 potatoes-baked, peeled and cubed (You could cube half and mash the other half)
4 green onions--chopped
1/4 regular onion-chopped
1 garlic clove-minced (optional--but very good)
1 1/4 cup shredded chedder cheese (grate some extra for the garnish)
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper

Cook bacon, melt butter, add onions and garlic, saute. Add flour. Stir milk and chicken broth together and add to mixture--wisk until thick and almost to boil. Put in potatoes--wisk until boiling. Reduce heat, add sour cream, salt, and pepper. Finally, add cheese and bacon.

I was asked to help prepare a dinner for the teachers at my son's school. I was in charge of the dessert. I made a very yummy apple crisp. While putting them together I decided to make one for my family to enjoy too. I did mine a little different from the recipe because I like to have more of the topping than I do the filling. I halved the recip of the filling for mine and did the whole this for the topping. It was perfect! The ice cream topped it off.

Apple Crisp (Lion House Desserts Cookbook)

Topping:

1 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup flour

1 cup oatmeal

1/4 tsp baking powder

Filling:

6 cups apples (6-8 apples peeled & sliced. I used Jonathan & Granny Smith apples)

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

Mix topping ingredients using a pastry blender until crumbly. Place sliced apples in a greased 9 x 13 baking dish. Combine sugar, salt and cinnamon. Sprinkle over apples. Place topping mixture over apples and bake at 350 for 45 minutes (mine was done in 40 minutes). Top with vanilla ice cream or whip cream.

Spicy Honey Butter Salmon

2008-11-10T07:34:00.000-08:00

This salmon is amazing!!! We got this recipe from Macey's one day. I think it was their grand opening, and they had a bunch of samples. The butcher was out making this recipe and passing it out. It was delicious then, and still is delicious now. We have been making it for about 2 years now. We make it once a month, usually for a sunday dinner. It is a treat. The honey butter just gets soaked into the salmon, making it so sweet. The Grill Mates Montreal Steak seasoning is perfect. It gives it a little kick. If you live in Utah, you can get Honey Butter in a nice squeezzable container. The kind I like to use is from Treasure Foods, and you can actually get it on-line. If you are interested, check out www.honeybutter4u.com . They also have flavored honey butters, and you can also buy it in bulk. You can also make your own honey butter by mixing equal parts of butter and honey. It's not quite the same, but it works! I buy my salmon at Sam's Club or Costco. They sell a 3 lb bag of Atlantic Salmon Center Cut Fillets individually packaged and frozen. They are very easy to thaw, and I just love having them on hand when I need them. This is what the McCormick Grill Mates Montreal Steak Seasoning looks like. I have bought the spicy one, and love it too! It gives it an extra kick!

Spicy Honey Butter Salmon

Center Cut Salmon Fillets (thawed, and one per person you are serving)

Honey Butter

Montreal Steak Grill Mates Seasoning

Instructions

Line baking pan with tin foil, and spray. Coat both sides of salmon with honey butter and sprinkle with Montreal Steak seasoning. Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until salmon flakes when stabbed with a fork. Serve over rice.

***Salmon doesn't really keep well, so don't plan to make leftovers...it's better fresh out of the oven. I really like to go to town with the honey butter, so don't be afraid to drench it. It is delish!

Pasta Fagioli Soup

2008-11-08T13:23:00.000-08:00

I'm taking a break from making my freezer meals for this month. Here's a quick freezer soup recipe. This also came from the cookbook, "Girlfriends on the Go". It is delicious! When I make it, I'm able to split it into 2 meals.

Pasta Fagioli Soup

1 lb. ground beef, browned and drained

1 small onion, chopped

1 cup grated carrots (I buy the shredded ones)

1 cup diced celery

1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes

1 (15 oz) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

2 (15oz) cans beef broth

1 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp pepper

2 tsp fresh parsley, chopped (I used dried parsley)

1/2 tsp hot sauce (Tabasco)

1 jar spaghetti sauce

1 small bag shell pasta

Cook noodles according to package directions (I slightly undercook mine). Place all ingredients in a large pot. Mix together. If freezing, place in freezer bag. To prepare: thaw and let simmer until vegetables are tender (30-45 min). Top with sour cream and cheddar cheese. Sometimes I add a little bit of water to it, to make it not so thick. We love to eat it with bread sticks. The breadstick in the picture is a from a refrigerator package of Pillsbury breadstick. I rolled it in parmesan cheese, sprinkled parsley on the top and twisted it. Enjoy!

Mini Cheesy Meatloaves...the better way to serve meatloaf!

2008-11-05T05:46:00.000-08:00

For all you meatloaf lovers out there, here is a new and improved meatloaf! For all you meatloaf haters, here is a new and improved meatloaf, that will make you love meatloaf again!!! Growing up, we had our share of meatloaf...I wasn't a big fan, and never made it after I was married, until my sister shared this recipe that she got from a good family friend. I make this once a month. It is super easy, a great way to get meat into the kids, they are mini, filled with cheese, oats, and topped with a mouth watering sauce! They are delicious! I will never stray from these mini meatloaves.

Mini Cheesy Meatloaves

1 lb. ground beef

1/2 cup oats

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

1 egg

1/4 cup milk

3 Tbsp onion (chopped)

Sauce

1 Tbsp brown sugar

1 Tbsp mustard

1/3 cup ketchup

Combine all ingredients very well. Shape into 4 mini meatloaves, packing together very tight. Place in greased, shallow baking dish. Cover with sauce. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

***I usually make extra sauce, because it is really tasty, and I like my meatloaves covered.

More Fall Comfort Foods

2008-11-02T19:49:00.001-08:00

Well, I hope that everyone had a fun halloween. I can't believe that it's already November! I really do enjoy this time of year. Last week the weather was amazing! We were at a park enjoying the sunshine almost everyday. This week it's going to be cold and rainy. I don't do very well when I have to be indoors all day. Anyway, we had a great halloween and my boys got enough candy to last us until next halloween. They had a great time trick-or-treating around the neigborhood. They also got to stay up late for a halloween party we had with our neighbors. It was a very busy day for all of us. I'm so glad that it's daylight savings and that we gain an extra hour. If my kids are up really early tomorrow, I'll probably change my mind.

Well, here are 3 recipes that I tried this week. They were all delicious and easy. The first, pictured above, is a white chicken chili that I got from www.thecookingdivaideas.blogspot.com/. It was thick and good.

White Chicken Chili
1 lb. chicken, cubed
1/2 tsp. pepper1 onion, chopped
1/4 tsp. cayenne
1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. salt1 TBSP. oil
1 tsp. dried oregano
2 cans great northern white beans, rinsed and drained
1 tsp. cumin1 can chicken broth
1 c. sour cream
1/2 c. whipping cream (or evaporated milk)
1 can chopped green chilies

Saute chicken, onion, and garlic powder in oil until chicken is done. Combine beans, broth, chilies and seasonings in large pot. Add chicken. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat. Simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream and cream (or evaporated milk). This is very yummy and works great with breadsticks as a side.

This french bread was absolutely amazing! I don't think I will ever buy french bread from the store again. This recipe I got from Laura at Real Mom Kitchen(http://realmomkitchen.blogspot.com/. She made it to go with my Lasagna Rolls. It was a perfect combination! It was very easy to make and it turned out to be very light, not heavy like most homemade breads. Thanks, Laura for a great recipe, I love it!

French Bread
2 ¼ cup warm water
2 Tbsp sugar
2 pkg. active dry yeast
1 Tbsp salt
2 Tbsp soft shortening or vegetable oil
6 cups flour

In large mixer (I just do it in my kitchen aid with the dough hook), combine water and sugar then sprinkle with yeast. Allow to soften. Add salt, oil, and half flour; mix well. Add remaining flour. Leave mixer in dough. Allow to rest 10 min. Stir dough down and allow to rest 10 min. Repeat until dough has been stirred dough 5 times. Turn dough on floured surface. Knead 2 or 3 times. Divide dough in 2. Roll each dough into 9x13 inch rectangle. Roll from long side and pinch edges. Place on baking sheet with pam or cornmeal. Cover and allow to rise 30 min. With sharp knives cut 3 gashes at angle on top of dough. Bake 400 degrees for 30 min, check at 20 minutes (It only takes 20 minutes in my oven).

I had to put a dessert at the end of this post! This was the easiest cheesecake I've every made!(I think its the first cheesecake I've ever made). My husband said it was better than the pumpkin cheesecake we'd had a couple weeks ago at The Olive Garden. Anyway, it was good and super simple. This recipe also came from http://www.thecookingdivaideas.blogspot.com/.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

1 graham cracker crust

1 12 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/2 c. sugar

1 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1 c. pure pumpkin

2 eggs

Mix the cream cheese, sugar and pumpkin pie spice on medium speed. Stir in pumpkin. Add eggs and mix until well blended. Pour into crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Cool. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

Halloween Breakfast

2008-10-30T09:47:00.000-07:00

Alright, I know that we've been posting a lot this week. I just wanted to add this cute idea for a halloween breakfast. A few weeks ago when I got out my halloween decorations, my kids found two tins that you put tea lights in with pumpkin faces. They found the tea lights, brought them to the kitchen and put them on the table so we could have a candlelight breakfast. I thought it was so cute, that I decided that we're going to start a tradition of having a candlelight breakfast on Halloween. The other day I made these pancakes for my boys. They've been eating so much cereal lately that I decided I should make them a good breakfast. I used Bisquick just added food coloring. They loved it and there wasn't one pancake left. I was lucky to have gotten some for myself. I thought it would be fun to have different toppings for them to make a jack-o-lantern face, but I hadn't planned that far. You could use any kind of fruit for that! Tomorrow I will be making ghost pancakes with chocolate chips for the eyes, that should be a hit! Hope you all have a wonderfully spooky halloween!

Halloween Night Menu

2008-10-29T08:51:00.000-07:00

This is my all-time favorite stew recipe. It is perfect for Halloween night. I will put everything into the slow cooker in the morning and cook it on low for 8 hours. I want it ready by 5:00 so that we can eat before the community Trunk or Treat at 6:00. This Hearty Beef Stew is amazing. McCormick has got me hooked on this one. They've got all the yummy flavors you want in your beef stew in this package pictured below. So if you are wondering what to do for dinner halloween night, give this stew a try. It will not dissapoint you. All the instructions are on the package. It calls for 2 lbs. stew beef, cut into 1-inch cubes, 5 cups cut-up fresh veggies, such as carrots, celery, onions and potatoes, 1 1/3 cups water, and 1 pkg. McCormick Seasoning for Beef Stew. It is so simple and delicious! Give it a try!

I have got to have rolls with my Beef Stew. Prudy's Honey Whole Wheat Rolls are a must. They are sweet, light, healthy, & perfect for soaking up the last of my stew. Find the recipe here: http://prudencepennywise.blogspot.com/2008/08/august-corn-chowder-and-soft-honey.html . Thanks Prudy, for sharing your recipes!

Can't forget about dessert! Pictured are my favorite Sour Cream Sugar Cookies. Unfortunately these aren't my halloween decorated ones, because I will be making them tomorrow. I love decorating sugar cookies for halloween. They are perfect for my 3 year old. After the Trunk or Treat we will come home and decorate Giant Pumpkin Sugar Cookies with yummy Cream Cheese frosting, sprinkles and candy corn, while watching Michael Jackson Music Videos. We love watching Thriller for Halloween. We don't let the little ones watch the scary monster part...it's a little too scary. This is really the only time of year that we whip these out. It's become a halloween tradition. My 3 year old loves to dance to Michael Jackson music. His favorite is Smooth Criminal and he loves to mimick the dancing. He's getting pretty good. His Uncle Matt would be very proud of him. Matt is the one who gave me my music videos years ago. He can do the moonwalk, and he even dressed up as Michael Jackson one year for Halloween. It was the year of my first Halloween party back when I was still single. My parents were kind enough to have the party at their house. It was a rockin' party! My brother was the DJ, and we had a great turnout. I was Tina Turner with a huge fro wig with crazy go-go boots. It was awesome! I probably could talk about halloween parties all day, but I won't continue to bore you. Just make sure you make these awesome cookies. They are soft and sweet!

Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

Cream together:

1 cup shortening

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

Add:

1 cup sour cream

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp Almond extract

Stir in:

4 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thick. Bake on greased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Frost with your favorite icing colored orange. Decorate with halloween sprinkles, candy corns, m&m's, chocolate chips, whatever! Yum!

Halloween Party Time!!!

2008-10-27T10:15:00.000-07:00

Well, the day that we look forward to all year has now come and gone. I even had a hard time sleeping the night before because I was so excited. It felt like Christmas Eve. Call me crazy, but I just live for these Halloween Parties. My husband and I started this tradition 3 years ago. This was our 4th Annual Halloween Party. I can't take all the credit, because my amazing and creative husband is the brains behind most of this. He sure knows how to throw a party and have fun! We throw this bash for both sides of our family. It is a great family tradition for us. Sometimes this is the only time that our families see each other, so it is a great reunion. We have a rule at our Halloween Party that you must dress up, or you are not fed! We get the best costumes, and they get even better over the years. We all want to out-do each other. We also keep our costumes a secret from each other. That makes it a lot of fun. We had a Medieval theme for our party this year. My husband dressed up as Merlin, I was Guenevere, my 3 year old was Lancelot and our little 1 year old was King Arthur. This post is all about our Halloween party. Hopefully this will give you some ideas for your own halloween bash, spooky food, a medieval b-day party, entertaining ideas, etc.!

This was my awesome centerpiece! My husband had a time when he loved knights, wizards, & medieval times stuff. So this noble knight worked out perfect with some spider webbing to spook it up a bit. We will get onto the food later in the post, but here is a sneak peek!

We always start off our parties with something to do while we are waiting for everyone to show up. This is our Halloween Flag, to be used for all future Halloween parties. I am no artist, but my college calligraphy class came in handy on this one. The "A" & "B" are the initials of our last names. We had everyone sign the flag, including something about who they dressed up as. We got some creative one liners!

This is our backdrop for pictures. We started this last year, and it is a great thing to have at an outdoor halloween party. This is a great time to get pictures with everyone dressed up. This scene was perfect with plenty of spots to sit. those massive pumpkins we grew in our garden.

Merlin's Volcano Potion...

This was an awesome activity for the kids. I wish that I had small viles for each ingredient, but couldn't find them. My husband made him a spell book by brushing paper with lemon juice and putting it under the broiler until it browns up. This really gives an old, mystical look to anything.
The kids had a great time adding the ingredients. They couldn't touch what was inside the bag or else they would be thrown into the potion! Here is the ingredients:

Potion Ingredients

1 black cauldron

spaghetti noodles (brains)

the tips of 2 plastic knives (dracula's teeth)

small circular pancake drippings (witches worts)

corn hair (werewolf hair)

spider webbing

plastic spiders

chunks of pumpkin (smashed pumpkin from sleepy hollow)

2 long screws (frankenstein's screws)

baking soda (bone powder)

vinegar died a spooky color (spooky potion #11)
ghost call (have all the kids do their best ghost sounds into the cauldron)

You want to do this in a place where you don't mind your potion over flowing. In our case, my husband did it in our garden so that it wouldn't hurt his grass. You want to pour in the vinegar last and watch how it bubbles and boils over. The kids thought it was pretty cool.

Let the games begin...

We had some great games this year. The first one was our Gladiators game. If any of you out there remember the show American Gladiators, that is where the inspiration for this game came from. We got 2 large cement blocks that were big enough for both feet. The players face each other each with a swimming noodle. You have to have both hands in the middle. On go, they battle to try and get the other off their block. It was so funny. There were a lot of laughs, falls, brotherly-kindness, & great fun! Demonstrating is Grumpy and Peter Pan! The 2nd picture above is our Sword in the Pumpkin for the kids. We got a monster pumpkin and a strong play sword. We used some strong caulking because that was what we had. We coated the sword before putting it into the pumpkin, then loaded glue at the top too. You could use gorilla glue, super glue, just something strong. This was easy enough for the kids, and they all got to try it, even after it really had been pulled out. They all felt like they pulled the sword out themselves. The 3rd picture was our catapult. We did this a few years ago with pumpkins launched to a target. This time we used tennis balls and the target was a big cardboard box painted grey to resemble a tower. The goal was to hit the tower. We made the launcher with surgical tubing and sewed some denim jean material for the pouch. This activity is always a winner! The 4th activity was our amazing magician. He was awesome. He is a family friend, and very talented with his magic. Everyone loved it. It was entertaining for the adults and children. The set up was perfect in our garage. We decorated with halloween paper lanters hung throughout with some of my spooky curtains made from black garbage bags I found on Martha Stewart's website. We set up several straw bails for seating.

On to some yummy food! Everything we ate was a finger food. We had to use our hands. I didn't even put out silverware. We ate on black plates with black cups and black napkins. We lined up 4 long tables with black tablecloths to eat on. It was like a royal table. We wanted everyone to eat together. We drank ale (aka., sparkling cider). Because the bottle sparkling cider is so expensive we made our own with 3 liters of apple cider and 2 liters of sprite. We also had orange and green kool-aid. Here are some of the fun foods our guests brought!

These are yummy homemade bat tortilla chips. Spray both sides of tortillas with cooking spray and sprinkle with Salad Supreme Seasoning. Use halloween cookie cutters to make spooky chips. Bake 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Serve with favorite salsa, guacamole, seven-layer dip, etc.

This is the famous Lembas Bread from Lord of the Rings, however they put cookies inside. Lembas bread is a special bread made by the Elves, which provides nutrition and sustenance on long journeys. My sister and her family dressed up as Lord of the Rings and showed up with this as their spooky treat. Inside are her famous Jumbo Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies. They are so good. We will post them soon. She wrapped them in tinfoil and glue gunned leaves from a Hostas Plant around them. What a clever idea!

These are the famous mummy dogs! Hot dogs wrapped in crescents. You can also wrap them with breadsticks. You bake them in the oven at 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes. These go over great with the kids!

These are deviled eggs with yummy olive spiders. Very creative , spooky and delicious!

We served fried Chicken & biscuits. Of course that's not homemade fried chicken... It was definitely bought from the deli at the local market & KFC! I've learned that in planning these parties it's gotta be simple. I did bake the Pillsbury biscuits, which by the way, are amazing! You buy them in the frozen section of the grocery story. You pop them in the oven frozen and have beautiful, fluffy, buttery biscuits in 20 minutes! They were perfect. The party was great! Thank you to all of our family members who dressed up, played hard, and put up with our love of Halloween! Until next year... I'm already excited!

Halloween Treats!

2008-10-25T19:39:00.000-07:00

We just got back from the big halloween party! It was so much fun! These were our costumes. They turned out so cute! I am a perfectionist when it comes to these things, and they couldn't have turned out any more perfect! They were exactly what I pictured. We won the "Most Creative Costume" award. We will definetely be keeping these for future use. The kids had so much fun playing together and watching a magic show. The food was great! We had some very creative treats that we will be posting throughout the coming week. Now, I will spend the coming week planning a "little" halloween party for my kids and their friends. I say "little", but I tend to go all out for just about everything I do. It will be fun and simple. If any of you have any ideas for ages 3-5, please share. Here are a couple easy treats for halloween.

Halloween Rice Krispie Treats

Follow the recipe on the Rice Krispies cereal box. I once and a halfed it so I could spread in onto a large cookie sheet. Let cool for 30 minutes and then use cookie cutters to cut out shapes. Use frosting, sprinkles, any candy you want to dress up your Rice Krispie Treats!

Eye-ball Cupcakes
Use your favorite cake mix and follow directions for cupcakes. Frost with white frosting then put a small spoonful of blue frosting in the center. Press an M&M (peanut or peanutbutter) in the center of blue frosting. Use red "gel" (I think that's what it's called) to make squiggly lines.

Happy Haunting!

We'll be back next week with some more halloween treats!

Thanks for the great party Sara!

Chicken Pot Pie & Sweet Onion Pork Chops Freezer Meals

2008-10-22T19:20:00.000-07:00

This week is a busy one! We're getting ready for the BIG Halloween party at my sister Sara's house! This party is huge! They give out awards for costumes, so everyone goes all out on making theirs look the best. And, we all try to keep what we're going to be a secret from everyone else. I will be spending a lot of time this week getting ours ready. I will give you a sneak peak at the bottom of this post. After the party I will show our full costumes. We're very excited. My freezer meals are coming in very handy this week. We've had 3 and I will share two with you in this post.

First, I love chicken pot pie. I should say, I love Marie Calendars' chicken pot pie. I never make it because it seems like a lot of work, but I found this recipe in Girlfriends on the Go (see my freezer meal post from 10/15). It's so easy and I couldn''t believe how good it was. My husband couldn't stop eating it and left a small sliver for me for tomorrow.

Easy Chicken Pot Pie

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and diced

1(16 oz.) bag of frozen mixed vegetables or 2 cups various veggies of you choice

1 can cream of chicken soup

1/4 cup milk or cream

1(double) ready-to-bake pie crust

seasonings to taste (I used oregano)

Mix together soup and milk until smooth. Stir in veggies. Add chicken and mix. If freezing, pour into a freezer bag. When ready to cook, thaw (mine was still a little frozen). Place one pie crust in a glass baking dish. Pour in veggie mixture. Cover with second pie crust. Cut 3-6 slices in top of crust. Bake at 400 for 30-40 minutes. Top crust should be golden brown. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.

This next recipe is amazing! I was a little leary about it, but it was fantastic. I will definitely be making this one every month! The combination of the onions, French dressing, BBQ sauce and honey are perfect.

Sweet Onion Pork Chops

8 boneless pork loin chops (3/4 inch thick)

2 Tbsp. canola oil

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup chooped sweet onion

1/2 cup ketchup

1/2 cup BBQ sauce

1/2 cup French salad dressing

1/2 cup honey

Heat oil in large skillet and brown pork chops on both sides. In a small bowl combine sugar, onion, ketchup, BBQ sauce, dressing and honey. Stir well. Pour sauce over pork chops, then bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to simmer, cover skillet and simmer for 12-14 minutes, or until meat is cooked through and tender. If freezing: cool completely. Place in freezer bags. Thaw in refrigerator over night. Heat skillet and add pork chops and sauce. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer 5-8 minutes, or until portk chops are heated through.

I was able to split this into two meals. It was so yummy. I served it with mashed potatoes and spaghetti squash. The sauce from the pork chops was great on the potatoes.

Here's your sneak peak at our costumes. My next post will be a scary halloween treat! Something you can take to a spooky halloween party!

Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Waffles

2008-10-20T09:03:00.000-07:00

First off, I want to thank my 2 amazing sisters who spent all weekend putting up the rest of their grapes so that I could have some yummy grape juice and grape jelly. They were done canning but still had more grapes on their vines so I asked them to pick some for me to do. They were going to bring them up to me when they come for the big party this weekend. Being the great sisters that they are, they decided just to do it for me. Thank you Rachel & Laura! Love ya! Because they did my grape juice I told Rachel that I would post today. I am very excited about this post.

I love these waffles. I have made them twice in the last 5 days. This is a perfect way to use some healthy whole wheat, and don't forget the protein from the Peanut Butter! I happened to find this recipe when I was going through a bunch of junk mail. I got an advertisement for a subscription to Cookie magazine. I don't know much about it, but I think it is a parenting magazine. Anyhow, I usually would have thrown it right away, but it said FREE stickers inside. My 2 year old really likes stickers, so I opened it so I could keep the stickers for him. It was a good thing I opened it up, because I fell across this amazing recipe. So for the lover of food and new recipes that I am, it must have been fate! I made them once and then lost the recipe, so the second time I made them, I went off my memory. The 2nd time was better than the first, so I must have done something different, but I sure liked whatever I did. I know I will find it one of these days tucked in a place that only my 2 year old would think of. These waffles are just heavenly with cut up bananas and homemade maple syrup. I also tried it with some blueberries, but didn't like it as much. I dressed up my boys' waffles with strawberry yogurt and bananas, which was a perfectly round breakfast for my little ones. My husband passed on my sugary maple syrup and went for the natural sugars in his honey. So, dress them up however you like...just be sure you make up these lovely Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Waffles for the fam. You will love them.

Whole-Wheat Peanut Butter Waffles

2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
2 1/4 cups milk
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup oil
1 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
2 eggs (whites seperated if using belgian waffle maker)

Belgian Waffle Maker: Combine flour, milk, peanut butter, oil, salt and baking powder in large bowl. Seperate egg whites in seperate bowl, and add egg yolks to flour mixture. Blend egg whites on high speed until fluffy. Blend flour mixture until combined. Add egg whites and lightly stir just until combined. Pour batter in hot waffle iron and bake to your liking.

Normal Waffle Maker: Combine all ingrediants and blend until combined. Pour batter in hot waffle iron and bake to your liking.

Homemade Maple Syrup

1 cup water
1 tsp maple flavoring
1 1/4 cup sugar

Bring water to a boil. Add sugar and maple flavoring. Stir constantly for about 2 minutes to get sugar dissolved. Serve warm. Store in fridge and re-heat for your next batch of waffles. It is a very runny syrup, but delicious when your waffle soaks it up!

"Boo"tiful Ghost & Yummy Mummy Cookies!!!

2008-10-17T13:50:00.000-07:00

These "spooky" little cookie friends are super easy for a quick class treat, party favors, or just a halloween hello! In my case, they were made just for fun. I love Halloween! It is my favorite holiday. For the last 3 years we have hosted a halloween party for our family members. We look forward to this every year. We begin planning our parties the day after the last one. We have a lot of fun. Well, this years halloween party is going to be a Medeival theme. We will be eating Fried Chicken & Biscuits. We have assigned out everyone to either bring a Spooky Side Dish, or a Spooky Treat/Dessert. We always have some great dishes that are a fright to see!!! I will be sure to post some of the pictures and some recipes. On to my cute little cookies...

Ghost & Mummy Cookies

1 package Nutter Butter Sandwich Cookies
1 Package Oreo Sandwich Cookies
1 Block Vanilla Bark, White Chocolate Chips, or White Baking Chocolate
Mini Chocolate Chips

Ghost: Melt Chocolate according to package directions. Dip Nutter Butter cookies into chocolate leaving about 1/4 of the cookie showing. Lay flat on wax paper. (I didn't have wax paper on hand, so I sprayed my tin foil and it worked great). Place 2 mini chips for eyes.
Mummy: Melt Chocolate according to package directions. Lay Oreo cookies flat on wax paper. Drizzle chocolate back and forth over cookie to make mummy bandages. Remember, its good to see some of the cookie still. Place 2 chips for eyes.

***I used a block of Vanilla Bark for mine, and one block had enough chocolate to do a package each of the Nutter Butter and the Oreo cookies. If you do White Chocolate Chips you probably would need 2 bags. For the White baking chocolate, you probably would need 5 packages. I wouldn't do the baking chocolate. It is too expensive. A lot of grocery store bakeries package their own bark, especially now getting close to the holidays, so check with the bakery.

Happy Halloween!!!

Freezer Meals

2008-10-15T15:08:00.000-07:00

Girlfriends on the Go! by Suzie Roberts

First of all, I've been going on a freezer meal marathon. I bought this cookbook last year and have made several make ahead meals from it and wanted to share a few of these recipes with you! This is a great book. It gives a lot of tips on freezing foods and helps you to organize your own make ahead meal group. These recipes will feed 6 adults (I will usually split a meal into two. I will use 8 x 8 pans instead of the 9 x 13). Last weekend, I put together about 8 of these meals and I have the ingredients to make at least 8 more. I have found that putting these meals together gives me a little more time to be with my kids in the afternoon, during the time that I would be preparing dinner. It's a lot of work. I think it will also help me to stay within my food budget (something, I'm not so good at). Just before pay day, I'm always going through my cupboards trying to find something to throw together, I now have plenty of healthy meals already prepared. Well, here is the first of my freezer meal recipes. I will continue to post these meals and they will be kept under freezer meals for future reference. If any of you out there have any great make ahead meal recipes, please leave me a comment, I would love to get more recipes to try out.

Chicken Divan

Chicken Divan
6 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and diced
2 (10 oz.) pkgs. chopped broccoli
1 cup mayonnaise (I used Miracle Whip)
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. curry powder
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
2 Tbsp. melted butter

Cook broccoli as directed on package. Drain. Mix all ingredients except cheese, bread crumbs and melted butter. Place in a 9 x 13 casserole dish. Cover with cheese. Mix the bread crumbs with the melted butter and sprinkle on top. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Serve over cooked rice.

If freezing: slightly undercook broccoli. Place in disposable aluminum pan and cover tightly with foil. Include cheese and bread crumbs with this meal. Mix melted butter and bread crumbs and place on top before baking.

Soup, Bread & Cookies for a cold fall day...with snow on the ground!!!

2008-10-13T10:13:00.000-07:00

I have 3 wonderful recipes to share today. Ever since we started our blog, I have become addicted to checking my favorite food blogs every day. I find so many wonderful recipes! Thank you to all you fellow food bloggers. I couldn't make this yummy food without you! All 3 of these recipes are perfect for a chilly fall day...(with snow on the ground) ...crazy!!! My first picture is Chicken Cream Cheese Soup. This soup is sooooo tasty!!! I found the recipe at The Sisters' Cafe at: http://sisterscafe.blogspot.com/ . I love visiting The Sisters' Cafe! They are 5 sisters that sure know how to cook, and they have got awesome recipes. This Chicken Cream Cheese Soup really is amazing. The other day I was looking at their blog with my dinner plan already set, and seeing this soup...my plans had to change! I love Cream Cheese in soups. It makes soups creamy and delicious! I took this soup to a dear neighbor who has cancer. I wanted to take a good comfort food and this was it! I hope they liked it. We loved it. It is great if you have a lot of potatoes that need to be used, which I do. I got a 50 pound bag of Gold Potatoes for $8.50! So don't be surprised if there are a lot of potato posts coming up. On to this yummy recipe...

Chicken Cream Cheese Soup

1 lb chicken (breasts or combination)
1 onion, diced
1-2 Tbsp butter
2 handfulls baby carrots (about 2 cups sliced small)
4-5 potatoes, diced small
1 cup milk
1/4 cup flour
8 oz package cream cheese

1. Put chicken in pot and cover with water; boil until cooked. Take chicken out of water but keep the broth. When chicken is cool, shred.
2. Saute onion in butter. Put onion in pot and add carrots and potatoes. Add 3-4 cups of broth or enough to cover vegetables. Add bouillon cubes or soup base for flavor (I added 4 bouillon cubes). Bring to a boil and simmer until veggies are tender.
3. Mix flour with milk and add to soup. Soften cream cheese in microwave then add to soup in little pieces and stir until melted. Season with salt and pepper.

Easy Peasant Bread next...

I love this bread recipe! This comes from another favorite blog... Laura at Real Mom Kitchen at http://realmomkitchen.blogspot.com . She has got a great blog with simple, delicious family friendly recipes. I love visiting her blog and I always know that I can find a good recipe there when I am looking for one. I actually always go to her blog when I need a quick, yummy dinner recipe. She is very talented. This peasant bread recipe is crusty on the outside, chewy on the inside, and makes a perfect side to any meal. It is super simple! I love simple bread recipes...don't we all? Find the recipe for Easy Peasant Bread here: http://realmomkitchen.blogspot.com/2008/07/easy-peasant-bread.html .

Last but not least...DESSERT! Maple-Nut Cookies with Maple Icing...

Wow!!! These little cookies were so tasty! I love the maple flavor. It is a fall taste, and these cookies are perfect for the fall. Toasted pecan halves, maple icing drizzle, and a shortbread crunch are what these cookies are all about! I found this recipe while browsing through another one of my mom's grocery store line Pillsbury fall cookbooks. These little cookbooks always have yummy recipes, and pictures to go with them. I had to try these little maple dream cookies! They taste like Pecan Sandies cookies, but so much better! They are more like a shortbread cookie. They sure were tasty, and a perfect fall cookie!

Pillsbury Maple-Nut Cookies with Maple Icing

3/4 cup pecan halves

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp maple flavoring

1 egg

2 cups flour

1 Tbsp sugar

Icing:

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 Tbsp milk

1 tsp maple flavoring

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In square pan, bake pecans 6-8 minutes stirring occassionally until light brown. Spread nuts on cutting board & cool 5 minutes. Finely chop.

2. In a large bowl, beat butter and brown sugar, scraping bowl until fluffy. Add maple flavoring and egg & blend well. Stir in flour and toasted pecans.

3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls on ungreased sheet, 2 inches apart. Flatten with criss cross fork dipped in sugar.

4. Bake 11-14 minutes or until edges are brown. cool 1 minute. Place on rack to cool completely.

5. In small bowl mix icing and drizzle over cookies.

***I saved some chopped toasted pecans to sprinkle on top. It gave the cookie a great finishing touch!

Easy Cheesy Lasagna Rolls

2008-10-11T08:47:00.000-07:00

These lasagna rolls are simple and delicious. I served a mission for the LDS church in Italy, so, to say that I LOVE italian food would be an understament. This is one of the simplest lasagna recipes I have ever seen. It's cheesy, saucy and yummy!!! I saw this done on Everyday Italian on the Food Network and had a recipe for them, so I put the two recipes together and added a little bit of my own touch and voila, Lasagna Rolls.

Cheesy Lasagna Rolls

12 Lasagna noodles, cooked and cooled
1 jar spaghetti sauce, divided ( I used Bertolli Italian Sausage Garlic & Romano sauce)
Filling:
1 container (15 oz) ricotta cheese
1 egg
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp parsley flakes
1/8 tsp pepper
1 tsp garlic salt
2 cups mozzarella cheese, divided (1 1/2 cup for filling, 1/2 cup on top)

Pour half of spaghetti sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan. Mix together all ingredients for the filling. Lay noodles flat and spread filling mixture on noodles - shown below. Roll up like a sleeping bag and lay in pan. Top with remaining sauce and mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.
Note: Do not over cook noodles. Follow directions on box of noodles.

Mom's Banana Bread with a Gooey, Chocolate addition!!!

2008-10-06T12:55:00.000-07:00

I love the combo of banana and chocolate. To make that combo complete...I would add peanut butter. I've been making my mom's banana bread now ever since I was married. I guess I just always had bananas that were going bad, so I needed to put them to use!?! I soon learned a secret that all of you probably already know, but this was great advice for me! If you don't have time to make your banana bread with your dead bananas, peel them and place in freezer ziploc and put them in the freezer. Then, when you are ready to make your banana bread you can thaw out your bananas and smash them right in the ziploc. Less mess, and you aren't wasting your bananas. I love banana bread on a crisp, fall day. It is even better with the chocolate chips! The chips make it taste more like a dessert and not a breakfast bread. I will confess, we did still eat this bread for breakfast! The chocolate chips didn't stop us!!! I love this banana bread recipe. My mom used to always make it for us, and now I make it for my family. The chocolate chip idea came from a good friend of mine. She returned a piece of my tupperware with a loaf of Banana Chocolate Chip bread. It was delicious. The chocolate chips just add so much chocolatey goodness to this healthy,(wink, wink) banana bread! I don't think I will ever make my mom's banana bread without chocolate chips again!!! No offense mom...I just love chocolate!
Mom's Banana Bread with Gooey Chocolate Chips

Spray bottom of 8" of 9" loaf pan. Makes one loaf. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix:
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter (softened)

Add & mix:
2 eggs

Add & beat for 30 seconds:
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (3-4)
1/3 cup water

Stir in remaining:
1 2/3 cup flour
1 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder

Add secret ingredient & fold into batter:
1 1/2 cup chocolate chips (fold in one cup and save 1/2 cup to sprinkle on top.)
Nuts are a yummy mix-in too!

Pour batter into pan sprayed only on the bottom. Sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup of chocolate chips to the top of the bread. Cook 8" for 1 hour 15 minutes, and 9" for 55-60 minutes at 350 degrees. Insert toothpick & if it comes out clean, it is done. Let it sit in pan for one hour or less, then move to wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy!

Yummy Caramel Toffee Apple Dip & a Speedy Race Car Birthday Cake for a speedy One Year Old!!!

2008-10-03T10:21:00.000-07:00

I am in love with this Apple Dip. The Toffee Chips give it a great crunch. It is creamy, sweet & just heavenly!!! I love to dip my apples in it. My in-laws have an apple tree with some of the best tarty apples. They are always kind to share. We had this at my son's birthday party the other night. They made for a crisp side to some speedy hot dogs, veggies and dip, & chips. It was a hit! You really could dip any kind of fruit with it. This recipe comes from a lady who takes this yummy dip to all of her bridal and baby showers with an assortment of fruit. It is sooo yummy! You don't want to miss out on this dip while apples are in season!

Creamy Caramel Toffee Dip

1 - 8 oz. Cream Cheese (softened)
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/4 cup White Sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup Skor or Heath Bar Toffee Chips

Beat cream cheese, sugars and vanilla together until fluffy. Stir in Toffee Chips just before serving. Serve with fruit. You can make the cream cheese mixture ahead of time and keep in the fridge...just don't forget to add the toffee chips. They complete this dip! Store leftover dip in the fridge. It keeps well, the toffee chips just lose their crunch.

Speedy Race Car Birthday Cake!!!

It was my little boys 1st Birthday this week! I did a Race Car theme, because this little guy just loves cars. He loves to drive them back and forth with his little hands. This cake was perfect for our little racer! I got the recipe from http://www.familyfun.com/ . I just love Family Fun. They have got great ideas for birthdays, craft projects, kid games, recipes & a whole lot more!

Go here for Race Track Cake: http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50190 .

I think the cake turned out perfect! The kids loved it! It was fun to look at, and of course to dig into. I love the crumbled oreo cookies for the track, and the green sprinkles were fantastic! I made my favorite Cream Cheese frosting that made it so tasty. I put my cakes in the freezer for about an hour before I frosted them, and I also dipped my frosting knife in water each time I dipped for more frosting. It helped keep the crumbs from the cake out of my frosting. I used white chocolate covered Reese's PB cups cut in small rectangles to make my dotted lines. I'm not a fan of the Good 'n Plenty's that the recipe called for. My cake sure isn't perfect like their picture, but it worked for me. My little boy loved it. He did eat a little too much cake, and was up a lot in the night with a belly ache, but hey...you're only "1" once!

I had to include this picture of our little racer getting ready to open his presents. Isn't that just the cutest back side you have ever seen! He knew what was coming! He loved opening his presents. Thanks to everyone who celebrated with us. He even performed his new walking skills for everyone! We love you bud!!!

Super Easy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

2008-10-01T08:12:00.000-07:00

Being a stay at home mom of 3 very active little boys, I'm always looking for an easy treat that my kids can halp me make in the late afternoon before Dad gets home. These pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are perfect for the little ones to help with. My kids just like to sit on the counter and watch the Kitchenaid mix everything together. And then, they get to pour in the chocolate chips and taste the cookie dough, their favorite part. They hit the spot on a crisp fall afternoon!
Pumkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 box spice cake mix
1 small can 100 % Pure Pumpkin
3/4 bag chocolate chips

Mix cake mix and pumpkin together. Add chocolate chips. Place heeping spoonfuls on cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. They're that easy! These also make a great gift and look very cute wrapped.

Hula Bagel Melts make you do the Hula!!!

2008-09-29T14:17:00.000-07:00

These bagel sandwiches are so tasty, simple, and nice and warm for a cool September day! I have to give my husband credit on this picture. He was the one who assembled these sandwiches. Notice the barbecue sauce dripping!!! That's the way he likes it. There is never too much barbecue sauce, and who cares if it drips all over the place...right?!? I got this idea from Kraft, but I have made it better! It is so simple. You just assemble the sandwiches, wrap them in foil and pop them in the oven. In 15 minutes you have a Hula Bagel Melt that will make you do the Hula!!! The pineapple and barbecue sauce just make this sandwich. They make a great combo! Serve with some salty veggie crisps and you have got a yummy meal!

Hula Bagel Melts
Bagels (Onion, Plain, or Everything)
Deli Ham
Sliced Pineapple
Barbecue Sauce
Deli Swiss Cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Each sandwich you make you will need a square of foil big enough to wrap up your sandwich. Lay out your foil and place open faced bagels on top of your foil. Begin assembling the melts with Ham, Pineapple, Barbecue sauce, and Cheese (in that order) on one side of bagel. Top with other side of bagel and wrap with foil tightly so that the melts stays together and the barbecue sauce doesn't leak. Place in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Let them sit for about 5 minutes to cool off a bit, and settle. Now, Hula away!!!

Muffins in the Morning!!!

2008-09-26T13:23:00.000-07:00

We absolutely LOVE a good muffin for breakfast with some fruit on the side. I have 2 muffins for you today. They were so delicious. They both were packed with fresh flavor, with a healthy feeling after I ate more than my share! I like to make muffins once a week at my house. Both of these muffins were great and they both came from 2 of my favorite sites. We are finally done with our peaches. We canned some, made jam, dried some, and then had enough for a peach pie, and these yummy Whole Wheat Peach Muffins (pictured above). The recipe came from Smitten Kitchen. They are actually Whole Wheat Apple Muffins, but I used my peaches instead of apples. They were so yummy. I'm pretty sure you could change out the apples and use any fruit variation. My sister tried them with pears and said they were fantastic! Go here for the recipe: http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/04/whole-wheat-apple-muffins/ . The recipe made a lot. I made 12 regular size muffins and about 16 mini muffins. The mini's are perfect for the kids, and I loved just popping them in my mouth. I also loved the sprinkling of brown sugar on the top. It made for a great finishing touch, and I loved the sweet little crunch on the top. I'm excited to try them with the apples. If you still have some peaches left over and arent' sick of them yet, you've got to make these muffins. Try them with any fruit. Whatever you've got! You won't regret it! On to the second muffin...

I love blueberries! My boys love blueberries! My 2 year old couldn't keep his hands out of the blueberries while I was making these! I got this recipe from another favorite, The Sisters' Cafe. There is a fun story behind these muffins. Find the recipe and story here: http://sisterscafe.blogspot.com/2008/09/little-red-riding-hoods-blueberry-wheat.html . Little Red Riding Hoods Blueberry Wheat Muffins (pictured above), really are amazing! These tasted like a muffin you would get at Great Harvest, or Einstein's. They were so tasty! I loved the secret ingredient. It really added a nutty flavor to the muffins. They tasted so healthy and hearty! The batter was super thick, and it was hard to get the blueberries mixed in well. I used frozen blueberries. I wasn't so worried about mushing them, and they didn't make my batter all blue. I got 12 regular sized muffins and a mini loaf out of it. Go to the recipe and find out what Granny's secret ingredient is. It is shocking and perfect for these delectible breakfast muffins! Happy muffin eating!!!

It's Fall Y'all

2008-09-23T08:54:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that it's officially fall. I love this time of year! Not only am I ready for the cooler weather, but I love beautiful fall leaves and all the yummy fall foods. We kicked off the fall at our house with one of our favorite soups! Mac 'n Cheese Soup. Even my kids will eat this soup! This recipe comes from the Pampered Chef Main Dishes cookbook. It has become a favorite of mine because of the easy recipes inside.
Mac 'n Cheese Soup

1 package (14 ounces) deluxe-type macaroni & cheese dinner
1 cup broccoli, chopped
1/2 cup onion, chopped (I used 1/4 cup dried onion)
1 cup water
2 1/2 cups milk
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) cheddar cheese soup
1 cup cubed ham (I didn't use it this time and I think I liked it better without)

Cook macaroni according to package directions; drain and set aside. Combine broccoli, onion and water in pot. Bring to a boil; cook 2 minutes (do not drain). Add cooked macaroni, cheese sauce from pouch, milk, cheese soup and ham. Return to boil, stirring occasionally. Yields 6 servings.

A few weeks ago I was experimenting and this is what I came up with. I had found a recipe from Picky Palate that got me wanting to experiment with this idea. She made Monkey bread and rolled hers in cinnamon and sugar. I decided to try making them into parmesan breadsticks and this is the result. My husband and kids loved them. I think it puts a little twist on the normal breadsticks we usually have with spaghetti or lasagna. Enjoy!

Pull Apart Parmesan Breadsticks
1 pkg Pillsbury refrigerated breadsticks
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp italian seasoning
dash garlic salt
Olive oil

Combine parm cheese, italian seasoning and garlic in a small bowl. Separate breadsticks into strips and put two strips together (one on top of the other). Cut into 1 inch pieces. Roll each in parmesan mixture and place in greased muffin tins (about 5 pieces in each one). Brush top with olive oil and sprinkle parmesan cheese mixture on top. Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes. Makes about 7 or eight.

Okay, I had to post a sweet treat too! I'm finally to the end of my peaches and I'm getting pretty tired of them. I've canned them, made jame, frozen some and made lots of yummy treats with them. This was my final treat. After attempting to make a peach pie one day and not having the crust turn out right or the pie filling set, I decided to try something way easy. I made these simple peach pie turnovers and boy were they good! (and easy)

Peach Pie Turnovers
1 pkg Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust (each one cut in half)
3 large peaches
2 Tbsp instant tapioca
3 Tbsp sugar
Dash Cinnamon
Dash Nutmeg
1 egg white
White sparkling sugar (to sprinkle on the top)

Peel peaches and cut into small pieces. Add tapioca, sugar, cinnamon & nutmeg. Stir well and let sit for 10 minutes. Unroll pie crusts and cut in half (each one will make 2 turnovers). Place 1/4 of peach mixture on half of pie crust, make sure to leave enough room on the edges to seal it when you fold it over. Use your fingers to rub a little bit of water on the edge to help seal it. Fold over filling and seal, use a fork around the edge for decoration. Brush tops with egg white and sprinkle white sparkling sugar on the top. Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes. Cut in half before serving and add a scoop of vanilla ice cream. If you cut them in half after they are baked they will make 8.

Coming soon: Super easy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

Homemade Sloppy Joes ... step aside Manwich!!!

2008-09-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

Growing up we had sloppy joes quite often with the Manwich sauce... in fact, when I first was married I bought a can of the sauce thinking that the meat was included. Opened it up for a quick dinner and to my dismay... our plans had to change. I was not an expert then, neither am I now, but I have learned a lot since then. One thing I have learned since then is to never buy Manwich again! This recipe for Sloppy Joe's is amazing! It is so saucy and full of flavor. I always get great reviews. However... I cannot take all of the credit because the recipe comes once again from my sister in-law, Tammy. She is an expert. I love the crunch that the veggies give to this sandwich. It is a perfect warm sandwich for a cool September day. I usually serve this with hamburger buns, but I have a new favorite on these soft deli rolls that I buy at Sam's Club. They are soft and delicious. They come in white or wheat and are both my favorite. If you are looking for a quick dinner, this is the one for you. The kids love it and gobble it. I love them with some chips and fruit on the side.

Sloppy Joe's

1 lb. hamburger
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1 - 10 oz can Tomato Soup
1/4 cup ketchup
1 Tbsp Vinegar
1 Tbsp Sugar
Salt & Pepper to taste

Brown your meat and cook veggies together in skillet over med-high heat. When meat is browned, drain. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for 20 minutes or longer to get all of the flavors to sink in, stirring occasionally. Serve on hamburger buns, hoagie boans, bread, whatever you have! Enjoy!

Scrumptious Peach Cake

2008-09-17T06:45:00.001-07:00

This Fresh Peach Cake is to die for. The recipe came from one of my best friends. You can find it on her blog http://www.thecookingdivaideas.blogspot.com/. (Visit her blog for this recipe and many other wonderful recipes). It is amazing! I could tell that it was going to be very good when I tasted the batter. I could have eaten just the batter! It was lucky to have made it to the oven! The sauce is delicious and added the perfect touch. I think that next time I will put it all over the cake before cutting it and then have some on the side to add to it. The fresh chopped peaches on the side are a must! This recipe is definetely going to be on my list of favorites! Enjoy!Thanks for sharing Heather!

Lemony-Blueberry Nectarine Freezer Jam & delicious Zucchini cookies

2008-09-12T12:36:00.001-07:00

Well, we have a lot of different fruit trees in our backyard (2 apple, 1 pear, 2 peach, 1 nectarine, & lots of grapes). Last year I used hardly any of our nectarines. This year I was determined to find something to do with them. I found this wonderful recipe in my Ball canning book. Everyone that has tried it has loved it. The lemon in it gives it the perfect zing. So, for those of you that may have a nectarine tree and don't know just what to do with all of them, try this freezer jam!
Lemony-Blueberry Nectarine Freezer Jam
3 cups chopped, pitted peeled nectarines ( I use my potato masher to mash the fruit)
1 cup crushedd blueberries
1 Tbsp. grated lemon peel
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 pouch freezer jam pectin

Combine nectarines, blueberries, lemon peel, lemon juice and sugar in a medium bowl. Let stand 15 minutes. Gradually stir freezer jam pectin into fruit mixture. Stir 3 minutes; let stand 5 minutes. Ladle jam into freezer jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Freeze.

Zucchini Drop Cookies

I found this recipe for zucchini cookies and I loved them. My 3 year old loves to help me cook and while he was helping me he called these "bikini" cookies, instead of zucchini cookies. It was cute! You can find the recipe by clicking on this link http://thecookingdivaideas.blogspot.com/2008/08/zucchini-drop-cookies.html. They are delicious! I made half with nuts and half without, but I definitely liked the ones with the nuts the best. I think the nuts made the cookies!

BLOG AWARD!!!

2008-09-09T10:23:00.000-07:00

A BIG "thank you" to Laura from Real Mom Kitchen for the Blog Award!!! She has got a great blog with some amazing recipes. She is very talented and creative. She sent us this blog award and I had never seen her blog. Her blog is a new found favorite and I visit every day. Check it out for yourself here: http://realmomkitchen.blogspot.com/ . I know that you will love her blog. She is very consistent in her posting...unlike us. She has always got delicious recipes, with pictures that make your mouth water. Find out for yourself! Now, we would like to share the LOVE and pass this award onto some yummy food blogs. Here goes!

1. The Sisters' Cafe at http://sisterscafe.blogspot.com/ . These sisters' sure know how to cook! They are so talented. I can always find a yummy recipe on their blog.
2. Hot off the Garlic Press at http://hotgarlic.blogspot.com/ . Natalie's blog is a lot of fun. She has got a fun, sassy, attractive food blog. She is very talented with her camera. I could eat her pictures right up!

3. Fun Foods - On a Budget! at http://baskersfunfoods.blogspot.com/ . Stephanie has got some great ideas and tips to make great frugal meals. She is creative and fun!

4. Annie's Feathered Nest at http://anniesfeatherednest.blogspot.com . Annie is an amazing lady. She featured My Sisters' Cucina on her blog a few months ago. Her blog is inspiring to me. It is a person like her that is making a difference!

5. Barbara Bakes at http://www.barbarabakes.blogspot.com . Barbara has a fun blog. She takes some delicious pictures. I can't help drooling when I see her blog.

***Thank you to all who stop by and read our blog. We are busy mom's of young children that keep us on the run! Thanks for staying tuned!

Baking at Beautiful Bear Lake!!!

2008-09-03T13:06:00.001-07:00

If this cake isn't BEAUTIFUL...I don't know what is!!! It even tastes as good as it looks. Don't be deceived by the name of it, just dig in and trust me on this one!!! We spent our Labor Day weekend at beautiful Bear Lake. If you live in Utah, you have got to make your way there. I think that it compares to an ocean beach without driving the distance. The lake is so blue and is surrounded by mountains. We love vacationing there. Bear Lake comes pretty close to this Orange Juice Cake! We spent time with my in-laws, who were kind enough to let us stay with them, and they were very accomadating to my two sisters who also came for the weekend. My sister's husband heard that we were having Orange Juice Cake, he said something like this ..."that sounds awful...but if Sara is making it...I'm sure its good...I'll give it a try!" Thanks Tyson! I think I fooled him. He went back for 2nds. I knew he would. This is an amazing cake that comes from my husband's Aunt Daisy from Tennessee. This lady is terrific! She is 89 years old and around the holidays she gets orders for this cake. She sells 75-100 at Christmas time. She made this recipe up one day in her kitchen. She is inspiring! Although I have never met her, I will always remember Aunt Daisy and her amazing Orange Juice Cake! This cake is definitely a family favorite. The ultimate baker of this cake is my sister-in-law Tammy. She makes incredible desserts and this is one that she gets requests for. I baked my cake in a silicone bundt cake pan. I love my silicone bakeware that was given to me from the queen dessert maker, Tammy. Thanks Tams! I am determined that my cake turned out this beautiful because of the silicone bundt pan. So, if you have one, you must make Orange Juice Cake in it. If you don't...go get one. It really cooks your cakes to perfection and you don't have to worry about it falling apart, or sticking to the pan. It is wonderful! On to this moist, juicy cake!

Aunt Daisy's Orange Juice Cake

Yellow Cake mix

Instant Vanilla Pudding (small box)

1/2 cup Oil

1 cup Orange Juice

4 Eggs

Chopped Pecans (about 1/2 cup, or more if you like)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together. Don't over-mix! Spray bundt cake pan. Sprinkle chopped pecans on the bottom of the pan. Pour cake mix evenly in bundt pan. Bake for 30-45 minutes. You know when it is done when it starts to pull away from the sides and the inside ring. While baking, make your glaze.

Glaze:

1 Stick Butter

1 cup Sugar

1/2 cup Orange Juice

Combine butter, sugar and juice in small saucepan. Bring to a boil and turn off. When cake comes out of the oven, stir glaze well before spooning over hot cake so that the butter gets mixed back in. (When it sits the butter settles to the top.) The glaze will eventually seep through the cake giving it a juicey moistness all over. This is what your cake will look like after the glaze settles in. Let it sit for 1 hour before removing from your pan. To remove from pan, place your plate upside down over the bundt pan and flip. If you use the silicone pan it will plop out perfect.

It is an amazing cake. I sent it to a funeral once and the kitchen ladies said that people kept coming into the kitchen looking for the yummy orange juice cake. I'm glad that I was able to brighten their day!!! It melts in your mouth. We had a wonderful time in Bear Lake, and got a taste of fall weather while we were there. Bring on the fall season with this Orange Juice Cake!

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

This was another favorite at Bear Lake. I took a peanut butter cookies recipe that I have that calls for peanut butter chips and put chopped Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in instead. They were a hit!! I just love peanut butter and chocolate and this was a good combination!

Peanut Butter Cookies
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 egg
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
8-9 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups chopped

In large bowl, beat brown sugar, peanut butter, butter and egg on medium speed or until creamy. Stir in flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir in peanut butter cups.

Shape dough into 1 1/2 inch balls. Roll balls into granulated sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet about 3 inches apart.

Bake at 375 for 9-10 minutes or until light brown. Cool 5 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

*I froze my peanut butter cups before chopping them and it seemed to be easier to chop them.

As you can see above, these cookies were irresistable. The kids were climbing on the table to get to them. I just had to get a picture of them all. It will be something to laugh about later on in life.

Buttermilk Chocolate Brownies

2008-08-29T07:44:00.001-07:00

Okay, so I've totally been a slacker at posting recipes. My life has been so crazy the last month. I ran a 1/2 marathon at the beginning of the month, my husband was out of town for a week, and we went on a week long family vacation to Southern California and got back just in time for my kindergartener to start school. We will be taking off again tomorrow to go up to Bear Lake for the Labor Day weekend. I'm excited to see my sister who has been awesome at posting recipes! Hopefully life will start to slow down a little, I doubt it, maybe I need to be a little more organized. Anyway, this brownie recipe is a huge family favorite. My grandma and mom have been making them for years. They are always a hit. I made them for the first time for my mom's birthday in July and they were oh so yummy!!!

Buttermilk Chocolate Brownies

2 cups sugar

2 cups flour

1 tsp sald

1 tsp soda

Mix in a bowl and set aside.

In a pan combine.

1 cup butter

1/3 cup cocoa

1 cup water

Cook until cocoa is dissolved. When dissolved add to flour mixture, stir well. Add:

1/2 cup buttermilk (stir well to help cool mixture before adding eggs)

2 eggs beaten

1 tsp vanilla

Mix well and spread on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 for exactly 20 minutes.

Frosting

In a saucepan combine:

3 Tbsp butter

1/3 cup buttermilk

3 Tbsp cocoa

Until cocoa is dissolved. Then, add:

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar (approx)

2 tsp vanilla
You want the consistency of the frosting to be in between thick and thin. Spread on brownies right after you take them out of the oven. I love nuts on my brownies, however not all people do. My mom always puts nuts on half of it. I love walnuts or pecans. Put nuts on right after you put the frosting on and press gently into frosting. Enjoy with a tall glass of milk or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Family Favorite Peach Cobbler & Super Simple Vanilla Ice Cream in a Bag

2008-08-27T12:57:00.000-07:00

This is my all time favorite Peach Cobbler! It is juicy from the peaches and has a perfect sweet crunch around the edges. If you like peach cobbler, you are going to LOVE this! This favorite comes from Paula Deen who is a favorite southern cook of my husband's family. Thanks to my sister-in-law, Tammy, we have this family favorite! You can do this with any berries or apples, but my personal favorite is with peaches. I used my frozen peaches from last years extras when I couldn't can anymore. We love peaches and we buy bushels and bushels from a neighboring town this time of year. Last year I was 8 months pregnant at this time and I bought 2 bushels of peaches to can. Yes, I was crazy!!! I put up 25 quarts, and 10 pints of jam, dried some, and froze some. I was peached-out! I couldn't have done the 25 quarts without a good neighbor friend who called and found out I was canning and came so quick, because she wouldn't allow me to do it by myself. We tackled it together in 2 hours! That was one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me. She knows who she is...if she reads this blog ;)! The 25 quarts lasted us the whole year. I opened our last jar last week. So...I've got 1 bushel of peaches coming this next week. It's time to can more! Yes, I lowered my order for this year only because I'm hoping our 2 peach trees will give us some good peaches this year! We'll see! So if you are like me and have an over abundance of peaches, please try this to-die-for Peach Cobbler! You will be hooked!

Peach Cobbler

2 cups fruit (frozen or fresh)

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

Combine fruit, sugar and water in saucepan. Stir and bring to a boil. Reduce and simmer for 10 minutes. Heat oven to 350 degrees. When oven is pre-heated:

Place 1 stick of butter in large casserole dish, or 13X9 pan and melt in the oven. While butter is melting, mix together:

1 cup sugar

1 cup Self-Rising Flour

3/4 cup milk

When butter is melted, pour mixture in pan with the butter. DO NOT STIR! Use slotted spoon and layer fruit on top. Spoon syrup as desired over the top. Bake 30-45 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm, with vanilla ice cream.

***I usually spoon about half of the syrup over the top. Save the rest for your pancakes, waffles, french toast, whatever...I love a little peach sugar syrup for breakfast! Don't try to substitute the self-rising flour with regular flour...it won't work! I'm a cook in training...I tried!

Vanilla Ice Cream In a Bag

We made our peach cobbler on a Sunday and realized we didnt' have vanilla ice cream to go with it...which is a must with a hot cobbler! I had some cream, so we made Ice Cream in a bag. It was so tasty! Go here for the recipe: http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=40986 . I am excited to make these again adding my own mix-ins. It would be great for a kids party with a bunch of mix-ins so they can customize their own Ice Cream in a Bag. There is less mess too, because they eat right out of the bag and throw it away!

***I used heavy whipping cream for mine instead of half & half, and it turned out great! My sister has done it with whole milk, and it works too, but takes a lot more time and patience. Kids are a great help with these. Let them give it a shake, shake, shake!

For all you Zucchini lovers out there!!!

2008-08-18T09:47:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to all the zucchini lovers! I have been cooking up a storm with our zucchini the last few weeks. I have tried a lot of new recipes and have enjoyed every one of them. I haven't posted for a while so this is going to be quite the marathon post. I definitely couldn't run a marathon, so I will do a marathon blog post instead! Hopefully I don't "zucchini" you all out! This first picture is my Garden Roasted Vegetable Lasagna. It is a favorite. It is so colorful and full of flavor with all of the different veggies. It's cheesy, saucy, and delish! My mom loves to pick up the little cook books they sell at the check-out stands at the grocery store. When we first got married I didn't know how to cook so I took a few of my mom's check-out stand cook books. This recipe comes from a Betty Crocker Weeknight Pasta & Rice book. Thanks Mom! I change it up a bit every time, so be creative and use what veggies you have.

ROASTED VEGETABLE LASAGNA
Olive oil-flavored cooking spray
2 medium bell peppers, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 medium zucchini, sliced (4 cups)
1 medium onion, cut into 8 wedges and seperated into pieces
1/2 poun mushrooms, sliced (3 cups)
12 uncooked lasagna noodles (12 ounces)
4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 jar (28 ounces) spaghetti sauce

1) Heat oven to 450 degrees. Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray. Place vegetables in pan. Spray vegetables with cooking spray; sprinkle with salt and pepper.
2) Bake uncovered 20 to 25 minutes, turning vegetables once, until tender.
3) Cook and drain noodles as directed on package. Rinse noodles with cold water; drain. Mix cheeses; set aside.
4) Reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees. Spray rectangular baking dish, 13X9, with cooking spray. Spread 1/4 cup spaghetti sauce in dish. Layer with 3 noodles, 3/4 cup sauce, 1 1/4 cups vegetables and 1 cup cheese mixture. Repeat 3 times with remaining noodles, sauce, vegetables and cheese mixture.
5) Bake uncovered 20 to 25 minutes or until hot. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting. Makes 10 servings.

***I always put more sauce than they say. I love a saucy lasagna! I like to choose 2 different colors of bell peppers. I love all the colors in this dish. I used one zucchini and one summer squash. I also made this one without the mushrooms. It was still great!

Next: Double Chocolate Zucchini Cookies

I love the moistness that zucchini gives to a cookie. These cookies were yummy!!! They were more like a cake cookie and so chocolatey. It was a great way to use some zucchini. I don't remember where I found this recipe, but whoever made it up...it's great!!!

Double Chocolate Zucchini Cookies

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 3/4 cups grated zucchini

1 bag chocolate chips

Preaheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheets.

In medium bowl, cream together butter and sugars. Add vanilla and egg and beat until creamy. Combine the flour, cocoa, soda and salt; gradually stir into the creamed mixture. Fold in the grated zucchini. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto cookie sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes then remove to wire rack.

Next: Grilled Zucchini Quaesadillas

These were a big hit! They were so yummy and packed with flavor. We are learning to love zucchini next to anything! I love the corn and the black beans in this. They are perfect. They were so easy on the grill, and I was so glad that I didn't have to turn on my oven. I found the recipe here: http://myplumpudding.blogspot.com/2008/08/summer-squash.html . I did add half of a can of diced tomatoes with green chilis and black beans in my mixture to give it more color.

If you decide to do them on the grill, clean the grill good before. Turn it on a medium high heat. Take one tortilla and spray with cooking spray. Lay tortilla with the sprayed side down onto the grill. Spoon mixture over your tortilla. Sprinkle with cheese. Take another tortilla and spray and place on top of mixture with sprayed side up. Cook until both sides are light brown and have those yummy grill grate lines on them. It wasn't hard to flip them. I did use my hands a little bit. I'm not a pro! Cut like a pizza and serve with chopped tomatoes and garnish with cilantro. Aren't they just beautiful!?! I really wanted to make a fresh salsa to go on top but ran out of time. Next time I will and I will also add a slab of guacamole and a dollop of sour cream. They were great, and oh so filling for having no meat in them. Give them a try!

Last, but not least: Pesto-Chicken Packets

This recipe came from the very first cook book I have ever owned; Betty Crocker 4 Ingredient Dinners! Betty has got some great easy recipes in this book. This is one of them. It was perfect for a sunday dinner. Low stress, less mess, and really tasty!

Pesto-Chicken Packets

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

8 roma tomatoes, cut into 1/2 inch slices

4 small zucchini, cut into 1/2 inch slices

1/2 cup prepared basil pesto

1) Heat coals or gas grill for direct heat.

2) Place 1 chicken breast half, 2 sliced tomatoes and 1 sliced zucchini on 1 side of each of 4 sheets of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Spoon 2 tablespoons pesto over chicken mixture. Fold other half of foil over chicken and vegetables so edges meet. Seal edges, making a tight 1 1/2 inch fold; fold again. Allow space on sides for circulation and expansion. Repeat folding to seal each side.

3) Cover and grill packets 4 to 5 inches from medium heat 20 to 25 minutes, or until juice of chicken is no longer pink when centers of thickest pieces are cut. Place foil packets on plates. To serve, cut a large X across top of packet; fold back foil.

*If you don't have a grill, bake packets in a 350 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes.

I'm off for the rest of the week to attend Brigham Young University's Education week. We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. If you would like to learn more about the church go to www.lds.org . BYU offers a wide variety of classes for youth and adults this week and is called Education Week. You do have to pay, but it is well worth it! My husband and I have gone every year since we have been married. Now that we have kids we just switch off going to classes. We love to learn more about the gospel, and ways that we can become better parents, neighbors,friends and Christians. It will be a fun week.

Cajun & Parmesan Grilled Zucchini

2008-08-12T08:16:00.000-07:00

We are trying to be creative in the ways we eat our zucchini. This one we have just loved! I got the idea from Crystal at Everyday Food Storage. I love her blog, and always find great ideas for everyday cooking, baking, and especially utilizing my food storage.
Check out her blog here: www.everydayfoodstorage.blogspot.com
She has got a very organized blog and even provides video instructions for some of her recipes. This is a grilled take from her Dad's broiled Zucchini that has quickly become a favorite at my house.

Cajun & Parmesan Grilled Zucchini
2 medium size zucchini
Olive Oil
Parmesan Cheese
Cajun Seasoning

Directions: Fire up the grill to Medium High heat. Wash and dry zucchini. Cut zucchini in half so you have 2, then cut your 2 halves in half again so you now have 4 wedges from one zucchini. Do the same with the other. Place on your grill face down so you are looking at the green skin. Grill for about 10 minutes or until zucchini starts to get tender and a little bit limp. Flip them over at that point and brush with olive oil. Sprinkle with cajun seasoning and parmesan. Close grill and cook for another 3 minutes to let the seasoning really sink in. I eat mine like a pickle...just pick it up and eat it!

This is a great way to spice up our zucchinni intake, because it is a fair amount right now! Every day we have another zucchini to pick. They grow like crazy! Soon to come will be some Zucchini Brownies, and some Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins. Stay tuned! I'm off to go color with my little boy! Have a great August day! We've actually had a little nip in the air at night. I'm not ready for the cold weather yet.

Paula Deen's Zucchini Bread with Crushed Pineapple and Pecans

2008-08-05T12:10:00.000-07:00

My sister asked me for this recipe the other day, so I decided just to make it and post it to the blog. Here you go Rach! I came across this recipe a few years ago while flipping through a Paula Deen magazine. I just love her recipe for zucchini bread. I love it so much, I don't know if I dare try another zucchini bread recipe. If anyone has a favorite recipe for zucchini bread that you think could compete with this one, please let me know. I would love to try it out. I've got plenty of zucchini! This bread is so moist with the zucchini and the crushed pineapple. The nuts give it a great crunch. My zucchini is on in the garden now, so I hope I don't bore you with my favorite zucchini recipes. Here goes!

Paula Deen's Zucchini Bread

Makes 2 loaves

1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups shredded zucchini
1 (8-ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained
1 cup chopped pecans

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 (9X5-inch) loaf pans. In a large bowl, combine sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. Add to sugar mixture, beating until smooth. Stir in zucchini, pineapple, and pecans. Pour batter into prepared loaf pans. Bake 50 to 55 minutes, or until a tester inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pans on a wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely on wire racks.

***I like to save some nuts to sprinkle on top of the bread. It gives it an extra crunch, and looks more like Paula's picture. I also used a whole 10 oz can of the crushed pineapple (recipe calls for 8-ounce) ...it still turned out great! At the end of my harvesting in my garden, I always have an over-abundance of zucchini that I need to use. I like to shred my zucchini and freeze it so I have it portioned out and ready to go into a batch of zucchini bread when I need it. That way I can reap the rewards from my harvesting all year round!

Prudy's AMAZING Honey Whole Wheat Grilled Pizzas!!!

2008-08-05T11:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning I was contemplating what to make for dinner. Think, think, think. I didn't want meat. I didn't want to use my oven and heat up my house, and I had some garden veggies that needed to be put to use. So I was browsing around at my favorite food blogs and came to Prudence Pennywise's blog. That is where I found her Honey Whole Wheat Grilled Pizza's that made for a delicious meal. She is an amazing cook, and has invented tons of great recipes. Go here for the recipe and for some fun music to dance to! http://prudencepennywise.blogspot.com/2008/08/honey-whole-wheat-grilled-pizza.html.
This honey whole wheat pizza crust is perfect! I have been wanting to learn how to grill pizza. She has got all of her tips on her blog. She also has a homemade pizza sauce that is just perfect. My family just loved these grilled pizzas. I made mine into a Garden Veggie Pizza. I sauted my zucchini and squash in my cool new grill pan that works just great! Before I put them in my grill pan I tossed my veggies with olive oil and crushed red pepper. That really gave my veggies a zing! My other toppings were basil, fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, and feta cheese. Wow! It really was amazing. My husband said that it was something he would get at a nice restaurant. It was so packed with flavor. I don't think I will ever use Rhodes Rolls for my pizza dough again...that is unless I am strapped for time, although I whipped it up in no time at all! Her pizza sauce is so tasty...it makes my usual Classico sauce look real bad! We've got a new favorite recipe at our house! I can't wait to make them again.

THANKS PRUDY!!!

Amazing Pizza Pasta Salad!

2008-07-31T14:19:00.000-07:00

This is one of my absolute favorite summer pasta salads. The other day I was kind of MEAT-ed out, so I decided to make this yummy salad for dinner. It is so lite, easy, and full of flavor. This is another Kraft recipe that never fails at my house. I love making this for a pot-luck, bbq, or neighborhood party. It always gets gobbled up. The fresh basil is delish in this dish. I love Kraft's Roasted Red Pepper Italian with Parmesan Dressing! It really gives this pasta a zing that you will love!

Pizza Pasta Salad

3 cups penne pasta, cooked, drained and cooled
4 tomatoes, chopped
12 slices Oscar Mayer Hard Salami, chopped
1 cup Kraft Natural Mozzarella Cheese Crumbles
1/2 cup sliced fresh basil
1/2 cup Kraft 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese
1/2 cup Kraft Roasted Red Pepper Italian with Parmesan Dressing

Toss all ingredients in large bowl; cover. Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving. Makes 10 servings, 1 cup each.

**I use pepperoni instead of the hard salami, because we have pepperoni all the time. I haven't ever tried it with the salami...I'm sure it's great! Using the pepperoni is more convenient for me. I can never find Kraft's Mozzarella Cheese Crumbles, so I use Mozzarella String Cheese. I use about 6 sticks and cut them into pieces. I always use more dressing than they say, and also add more dressing after it has been in the fridge for a day. Sometimes I have had a hard time finding the Roasted Red Pepper Italian dressing, so I have used Kraft's Sun-Dried Tomato Vinagrette and it also tastes great! We love this easy dish and I know you will too! It is perfect served with garlic bread.

Leftover Taco Meat Anyone???

2008-07-28T09:33:00.000-07:00

We're back, and had a fun-filled weekend! We celebrated Pioneer Day until we dropped! We had fun with family and friends and of course ate some great food! Our annual fireworks and homemade ice cream was great! We had some great flavors. On Pioneer day we tried to eat as pioneer as possible and made tin foil dinners. They were yummy! I will post some tin foil dinners soon. We ate some great Navajo Tacos at our small town Pioneer day celebration. They are so yummy, and I willl post a recipe for them soon as well. We had a great weekend and we are all worn out. Too bad we have to wait a whole year to see more "fiweworks", as my son calls them. He loved them. I love the month of July! On to some yummy, cheesy, Taco Pockets! I had some leftover taco meat and got this idea from a Taste of Home cookbook that I tweeked a bit to fit what I had. They were a hit, and I will always do this with my leftover taco meat from now on . My taco meat is a recipe from Kraft Foods found here: http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/recipes/taco-salad-bowls-109726.aspx . We love to make these yummy Taco Salad Bowls. They are so easy and tasty. I love this recipe for taco meat with kidney beans. The beans really add to it. After we had the taco bowls one day, we had plenty of leftover taco meat. So one afternoon I whipped these up. Give them a try!

Taco Pockets
taco meat
1 pkg refridgerated large flaky buttermilk biscuits (8 to a pkg)
sliced cheddar cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray large cookie sheet pan. Open biscuits and roll out flat to make a 4 inch circle on the cookie sheet with all 8 of the biscuits. Dollop your taco meat in the middle of four rolled out biscuits. Top with cheese and put one rolled out biscuit on top to make a sandwich. Press edges together and seal with a fork all the way around the pocket. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Makes 4 Taco Pockets.

Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

2008-07-22T09:01:00.000-07:00

For my first time making homemade ice cream, I picked a great recipe to try out! This is absolutely delish! I have memories of homemade ice cream in the month of july and decided to finally try it myself. My sister-in-law gave us an ice cream maker for Christmas one year, and I have waited til now to break it out. I think I was a little nervous. What was I thinking...it was so easy! My family has a tradition of watching Fireworks and eating homemade ice cream and cookies to celebrate Pioneer Day. We all love this tradition and I am looking forward to it. I am especially excited for my boys to see the fireworks. There is something about being a parent and watching your child experience things for the first time that I just love. No more rambling...onto this yummy ice cream!
I think that some of the best recipes are found in your instruction book. At least this one was a winner! The only thing that I will do different next time is leave my graham crackers more chunky and not complete crumbs. I also used fresh strawberries. I used my handy dandy egg slicer to get them cut into small pieces running the strawberry through one way, then turning it a quarter turn and running through the other way to make small squares. It worked for me! I cut them up the day before and put them in the fridge until I was ready to use them. Look out...here come the calories! Now you will know why it tasted soooo good!

Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

1 8-ounce pkg cream cheese (softened)

2 cups frozen strawberries (slightly thawed)

1 can sweetened condensed milk

2 cups heavy whipping cream

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

Directions:

Allow cream cheese to soften and the strawberries to become slightly thawed. In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Gradually add condensed milk until smooth, (I used my hand mixer...you could use a blender). Mix in heavy whipping cream and vanilla. Chop strawberries into small peices and stir into mixture. Stir in graham cracker crumbs. Mix well. Pour into canister. Plug in your machine, add your ice and salt, and let it churn, churn, churn!

When I was young we always wanted to be around when the ice cream was done, because Grandma & Grandpa would let us have the best taste... right off the dasher spatula. If we were lucky they would leave a lot of ice cream on it. I enjoyed licking it all by myself this time! Enjoy!

My favorite way to eat this yummy treat is in a nice sugar cone. It is a cool treat for a hot summer day! Happy Pioneer Day! I will be spending the rest of the week with family, in fact I get to go to my sister's kitchen and see what she has been up to. I'm excited to try out her yummy donuts on Pioneer Day!

Our 2nd Ever Blog Award!!!

2008-07-22T06:54:00.000-07:00

A BIG Thank you to Jenny at Picky Palate for the Blog Award!!! We just love Jenny's blog, and read it oh, so frequently. Jenny is a very, very talented and inventive cook. She is always entering contests, and receiving rewards for the yummy things she cooks up. She has even appeared on the Food Network. She has got beautiful pictures on her blog that will make you drool and send you strait to your kitchen with new recipes to try. If you haven't visited The Picky Palate yet, do so NOW!!! (Her link is on our sidebar.) You will find a new favorite foodie blog! My sister and I have both cooked recipes from her blog that we just love...and we know you will too! Check her out!

Now we will send this award to 5 of our favorite blogs that we feel deserve THE SMILE AWARD. These blogs just bring smiles to our faces when we visit... whether it is with their food, great tips, or fun ideas. Go see for yourself!

1) Our friend Prudy at Prudence Pennywise; http://prudencepennywise.blogspot.com
2) A Little Of This And Some Of that ; http://alittleofthisandsomeofthat.blogspot.com
3) Brooke at ...and a cookie for dessert; http://brooke-cookiejar.blogspot.com
4) Ramblings of a Frantic Home Cook; http://frantichomecook.com
5) Megan at Plum Pudding; http://myplumpudding.blogspot.com

Now, pass this award onto 5 more blogs that bring a SMILE to your faces, and don't forget to tell them where you got it!

Brigham's Buttermilk Doughnuts

2008-07-21T19:09:00.001-07:00

This week, here in Utah, we celebrate the 24th of July, the day that the pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley. We've been doing various activities throughout the month to help them understand what it could have been like to be a pioneer. Last Saturday we had an activity with our little ones where they got to dress up as pioneer children and play games that the pioneers would have played. They were very simple games, but I'm convinced that my boys should have lived during that time (don't get me wrong, I'm so grateful they're mine ritght now). I couldn't believe how much fun they had with the most simple activities. Well, tonight for Family Home Evening we made these wonderful doughnuts that were a favorite of the prophet Brigham Young. He led the first group of Saints into the Salt Lake Valley. This recipe comes from one of his wives and is in the Christmas Recipes from the Lion House book. They are delicious, I couldn't stop after one. I rolled mine in cinnamon and sugar and they were great. Happy 24th!!

Brigham’s Buttermilk Doughnuts

2 cups buttermilk
2 large eggs beaten
1 cup sugar
5 cups flour
2tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg
¼ cup melted butter

Combine buttermilk, eggs, and sugar and mix well. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg together into a large mixing bowl. Stir in buttermilk mixture, then melted butter. Roll dough out about ¼ inch thick on floured board; cut with doughnut cutter. Fry in hot oil till golden brown on both sides. Drain on paper towels. Sprinkle or roll in sugar. Makes 2 dozen doughnuts.

Super Simple Strawberry Freezer Jam

2008-07-21T16:08:00.000-07:00

Last week I ran out of jam, and I my little boy every morning lately has wanted toast with jam. Strawberries were on for a good price, so I got all the stuff to make this yummy NO COOK Freezer Jam. We love this stuff at my house. It is like candy, and its always a treat to lick the spoon when you are done with the spreading! All you need are strawberries, 1 pkg of Ball's No Cook Freezer Jam Fruit Pectin, 1 1/2 cups sugar and freezer jars or 1/2 pint jars. Ball makes these wonderful plastic freezer jars that make stacking a sinch. The lids screw on and make my jam packing a lot easier. Just follow the directions on the Ball package for the jam.
For each package you need 4 cups of crushed strawberries. This package can be used with raspberries and peaches too! I have tried all of them. We loved the raspberry and strawberry the best. Crushing the fruit is the hardest part. It is best to have your fruit a little over ripe so it is easier to crush. Then you add your pectin and sugar and bam...you've got freezer jam!!!
Next you pack your jam in your jars giving them a 1/2 inch head space, screw on your lids and let them sit for 30 minutes before loading them into the freezer. I like to pack some in the 1/2 pint jars because they make pretty gifts when I need one. There's nothin' like homemade jam. It makes store bought jam look very sad! I love this jam because it is Super Simple!

Boxed Shells 'N Cheese Makeover

2008-07-17T08:17:00.000-07:00

We love this simple boxed meal makeover at my house. It is always gobbled up. Especially because anything with noodles my 2 year old will eat! This recipe comes from Kraft Foods, of course! Anything brilliant and yummy usually comes from them. I love the taste of the fresh basil from my garden. The garlic salt gives it a little bit of a zing, and the tomatoes give this a fresh twist on a plain boxed meal. It is so easy and quick...perfect for a summer lunch! I also love this quick Italian Garlic Bread that I just pop in the broiler. If you are looking for a quick fix meal, this is it!

Shells 'N Cheese with Tomato, Basil & Garlic

1 Box Shells 'N Cheese Dinner

1 Tomato, diced

1 handful Basil, chopped

Garlic Salt, sprinkle to your liking

Cook Shells 'N Cheese according to package. Drain and return noodles to same pan. Add cheese and stir well. Add tomatoes, basil and garlic salt. Serves 4.

Italian Garlic Bread

1 Loaf French Bread

Butter

1 pkg Italian dressing mix

Parmesan Cheese

Mozarella Cheese

Cut loaf of french bread lengthwise and butter both sides. Sprinkle Italian dressing mix lightly on both sides (I usually only use half of the package, and save the other half for the next time.) Sprinkle with Parmesan and Mozarella cheeses to your liking. Broil on high for about 2 minutes or until cheese is melted and browning, and when sides get crisp.