Blueberry Cheesecake Pie

This recipe is so, so, so yummy.  It's light and fruity, and really good.  And I almost always have all the ingredients in my kitchen, so it's easy to make without planning ahead, which I'm notorious for!  The recipe comes from here.

Blueberry Cheesecake Pie

Crumb Crust:
9 large rectangular graham crackers (about 1 1/2 cups) crushed (My food processor makes crushing crackers so easy!)
2 TBSP sugar
6 TBSP melter butter

For the cheese custard:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
Freshly grated zest from 1 lemon

For the berries:
2 cups blueberries, rinsed (you could also use frozen ones, a staple in my freezer)
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 TBSP corn starch, mixed with 2 TBSP cold water

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  In a small bowl, combine the crushed graham crackers, sugar and butter.  Pat the crumb mixture into a 9 inch pie pan and bake for 8 minutes, until very lightly browned and set.  Let the crust cool completely before filling.  Leave the oven on.

Meanwhile, make the cheese custard:  in a medium bow,, combine the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla and beat until thoroughly mixed and smooth.  Add the eggs and beat well.  Stir in the lemon zest.  Pour into the cooled shell and bake until just set, 25-30 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let cool completely.

While the custard is cooking, combine the berries, water, and sugar in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat and add the cornstarch mixture.  Return to a boil and cook for one minute, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thickened.  Remove from the heat and cool until tepid.

Spoon the berries over the cooled custard.  Chill for at least one hour before serving.

Naan

This is the best recipe for Naan I've tried.  And it's really easy.  You just need to plan enough time for the two risings.  I found the recipe here.  I do halve the recipe, because it makes a lot of naan, and it's best fresh.

You can either grill this Naan, as the recipe says, or you can cook it in a cast iron frying pan, with just a light coating of oil.  This is called dry frying, and it's how I cook my Naan.  I love my cast iron frying pan, nothing ever sticks to it!

Naan

1 package dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1/4 cup white sugar (I do less, just a sprinkle of sugar to help the yeast grow.  1/4 cup makes it too sweet)
3 TBSP milk
1 egg
2 tsp salt
4 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp minced garlic (optional)
1/4 cup butter, melter

In a large bowl, dissolve years in warm water. Let stand about 10 minutes, until frothy.  Stir in sugar, milk, egg, salt and enough flour to make a soft dough  (I've found it takes less than the 4 cups).  Knead for 6 to 8 minutes on a lightly floured surface, or until smooth.  Place dough in a well oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and set aside to rise.  Let it rise 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in volume.

Punch dough down, and knead in garlic (if making garlic naan.  If making plain naan, skip this step.)  Pinch off small handfuls of dough about the size of a golf ball (you should get about 14).  Roll into balls and place on a tray.  Cover with a towel, and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.

During the second rising, preheat grill to high heat (or frying pan).

At grill side, roll one ball of dough out into a thin circle.  Lightly oil grill.  Place dough on grill, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until puffy and slightly browned.  Brush uncooked side with butter, and turn over.  Brush cooked side with butter, and cook until browned, another 2 to 4 minutes.  Remove from grill, and continue the process until all the naan has been prepared.

Grilled Island Chicken

This recipe comes from here.  This is the very best chicken I've made!  It was so good.  Yesterday's chicken was good, but this one was way better.  It was good by itself, or it would have been good with flat bread and tzatziki sauce, or with French fries.  It was juicy and flavorful.  I wasn't expecting it to be so good, because the marinade is so simple, but it's really, really good.

Grilled Island Chicken

1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 TBSP freshly squeezed lemon juice (I used 2)
1 1/2 TBSP soy sauce
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2-4 chicken breasts (If I was using more than 2, I would double the recipe)

Combine all the ingredients except chicken in a bowl or Ziploc bag.  Mix well.  Add the chicken breasts, and marinate all day.  Cook on the grill until done.  I cubed my chicken and did it on skewers, that's our favorite way to eat grilled chicken, and it cooks the fastest, but you can cook the breasts whole too.

Pineapple Apricot Chicken Skewers

Once again, this recipe comes from here.  She has a lot of great grilling recipes.  I've been using the grill more this year, and I've really liked it.  The downside is, we're going through chicken faster than ever!  My stash in the freezer is almost gone.  I need a chicken sale!  I did halve this recipe, it makes a TON of marinade.  You could easily do 2 chicken breasts, or 3 smaller ones with half the recipe, and that's plenty of chicken for us.

Pineapple Apricot Chicken Skewers

32 ounce jar of pineapple apricot preserves
1 TBSP yellow mustard
3 TBSP balsamic vinegar
2 TBSP honey
1 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper
4-6 chicken breasts, cubed
8-10 bamboo skewers

Combine the ingredients in a gallon ziploc bag except chicken.  Mix well.  Add chicken, mix in and marinate from 2 hours to all day.  The longer the better.  (I only did a couple hours, next time I would plan better and do all day.)  Put chicken on skewers and grill until cooked through.

I halved the amount of preserves, but I did the full amount of the other seasonings.  I hope that makes sense.  So if I made the whole recipe, I would do 32 ounces of the preserves, but double the rest of the spices.

Banana Sour Cream Bread

I never liked banana bread as a kid, because I didn't like the texture.  It was rubbery, and it seemed like the edges had to burn to get the middle to cook.  I discovered this recipe one day, years ago, and my banana bread has been perfect ever since!

Banana Sour Cream Bread

3/4 cup butter
3 cups white sugar
3 eggs
6 very rip bananas, mashed
16 ounces sour cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease 4 7x3 inch loaf pans (I used muffin tins, it made 2 dozen, and 1 mini loaf).  In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar.  Mix in eggs, mashed bananas, sour cream, vanilla and cinnamon.  Mix together salt, baking soda and flour, then add to sugar and banana mixture.  Mix well.  Stir in nuts.  Divide into prepared pans.  Bake for 1 hour, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Glazed Poppyseed Cake

I got this recipe here, but I changed it a far amount, so I'm just going to post the way I made it.  It's a really, really good cake, but quite rich.

Glazed Poppyseed Cake

1 lemon cake mix
1 box of instant lemon pudding
1/8-1/4 cup poppy seeds (I add more if I think it needs it)
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup oil
1 cup sour cream
4 eggs

Mix cake mix, pudding mix, and poppy seeds.  Add juice, oil and sour cream and mix well.
Add eggs one at a time, mix well.  Grease and flour a bundt pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.  When the cake is done, start the glaze.  Allow cake to cool for 10 minutes.

Glaze

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup butter

Bring ingredients to a boil and keep bubbling until ready to brush on cake.  Once cake has cooled for 10 minutes, brush the bottom of the cake with some glaze.  Then invert cake to a plate.  Brush the remaining glaze all over the cake.  Allow cake to cool about 50 minutes, then serve.

Sweet Lentil Stew

This was another really, really good dish.  It's from the Saving Dinner Cookbook.  Every recipe I've had from this cookbook has been excellent, and relatively easy.  I really need to go buy it for myself!

Sweet Lentil Stew

1 3/4 cups dried lentils, washed
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut in 1-inch chunks
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 small red pepper, diced
1 large potato, diced
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, pressed
3 cups water
1 TBSP olive oil

Mix all ingredients in crock pot, except for olive oil.

Cover and cook on low 8-10 hours, or until the vegetables and lentils are tender.  Stir in the olive oil just before serving.  Serves 6.

Since my crock pot met an untimely death, and I can't bear to replace her yet, I cooked mine on the stove top.  It took about an hour to cook, but I had to add at least 3 more cups of water.  Even in the crockpot, I would check it about halfway through the cooking to make sure it wasn't getting too dry.  Lentils take a fair amount of water to cook, as do the potatoes.

I eliminated the regular potato, and used 2 sweet potatoes instead.  Instead of the jar of spaghetti sauce, I used a can of diced tomatoes (I avoid using canned spaghetti sauce at all costs).  It came out delightful and oh so healthy.  There are 26 grams of fiber per serving!

Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas

These were so different from the enchiladas that I usually make, but they were very good.  You do have to marinate the chicken, but because you're usually precooked chicken, you can either use the leftover chicken from the Chicken Posole, or you can use some precooked chicken you already have in the freezer.  I got the recipe here.

Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas

6 TBSP honey
5 TBSP lime juice (2-3 limes)
1 TBSP chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 pound chicken, cooked and shredded

Combine above ingredients, and marinate at least 30 minutes.

8-10 tortillas
1 pound monterrey jack cheese, shredded, reserve 1 cup
16 ounces green enchilada sauce
1 cup cream (I used sour cream, and it was perfect, I don't think I would like it with cream, too heavy)

Spread 1/2 cup enchilada sauce in the bottom of 9x13 pan.  Fill tortillas with the shredded meat and cheese, roll like burritos, and place in the pan.  (I used a fork to get the meat out, so that I could use the rest of the marinade in the next step.)

Mix the rest of the marinade, green enchilada sauce, and sour cream.  Pour on top of the enchiladas, and top with the shredded cheese.  Bake at 350 degrees until bubbly and brown on top.

I cut this recipe in half, but I did not cut the marinade in half, if that makes sense.  I used an 8x8 pan.  I would use a little less sour cream, so that you could taste the enchilada sauce better, and they were a little too saucy and soupy.  But the flavor was absolutely wonderful.  I was very pleased with this recipe, and it will definitely go into my list of recipes to make again.

Chicken Posole

This was a fabulous recipe.  Very, very simple, but oh so tasty.  I could eat it every day until it was gone, and then I want to make it again!  I originally got the recipe here, but I changed it up a bit.

Chicken Posole

1 TBSP olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
32 ounces chicken broth (I make mine with bouillon cubes and 4 cups water)
1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes, with the juice
chili oil
2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken meat
1 can great northern beans

Heat the oil in a pan, and cook the onion until soft.  Add the rest of the ingredients, and heat through.  Add chili oil to desired heat.  I only put a couple drops into our soup, just enough to give it a little flavor, because the kids don't like spicy food.

This is so very simple, but oh so delightful.   I did use a rotisserie chicken (the first time I've ever bought one!) It was so easy and very delicious.  Tomorrow I'll post a recipe for what you can do with the rest of the chicken from the rotisserie chicken.  Another yummy recipe.

German Pancake

I had never made a German pancake until a couple weeks ago when I didn't want to make dinner, and I had some fresh farm eggs sitting around, so I decided to make this for dinner!  The kids loved it and so did I.  I have never made this before, so I don't know if the fresh eggs made it puffier than it would have been with store eggs, but it was GINORMOUS.  We've made the switch to farm fresh eggs, and they are so much better than eggs from the store, and I know exactly where they came from (my friend!)  This was yummy, and I'll have to make it again.  We served it with fresh strawberries, and it was very yummy.  And oh so simple.  I got the recipe here.

German Pancake

6 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 TBSP butter, melted

Put all ingredients except butter in the blender, and mix until smooth.  Pout the butter into a 9x13 pan, then pour the batter in to the pan.  Bake, at 400 degrees, for 20 minutes, until puffy, golden on top, and set in the middle.

Dust with powdered sugar, and serve immediately.  It is best hot.

Baked Oatmeal

This is a great winter breakfast recipe I had forgotten about.  It's summer now, but I figured I should post it before I forgot again.  The recipe originally came from here, but I made it quite differently.

Baked Oatmeal

6 cups quick cooking oatmeal
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups milk
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, slightly beaten

In a large bowl, mix all ingredients together.  Pour into a 9x13 pan.  Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes or until set.  Serve with milk, berries, honey, whatever oatmeal toppings you like.

I cut the recipe in half, and made it in an 8x8 pan, because 6 cups is WAY too much oatmeal for us.  I also cut down on the sugar, and put only a splash of oil in.  I wanted it to be more oatmealish, and this recipe is more like a giant oatmeal cookie.  I also put raisins in, and it was very good.

Crockpot Refried Beans

This is a very simple recipe, but oh so good.  You won't be able to go back to the canned stuff after making these, I promise!  And if you don't like refried beans, give these a whirl, you'll change your mind after trying them.  I got the recipe here, although I've seen it lots of other places.

Crockpot Refried Beans

3 cups of dry pinto beans (rinsed)
1 onion, diced
9 cups of water
5 tsp salt
1 3/4 tsp pepper
2 TBSP minced garlic
1/8 tsp ground cumin
2 TBSP butter

Put all the ingredients except the salt and the butter in a crock pot and cook on high for about 8 hours.

After they are done, drain all of the liquid out and save the liquid.

Mash beans with a potato masher as much or as little as you want.  Add liquid, a bit at a time, to desired consistency, but remember you want them a little runny because they thicken over time.  Add salt and butter, and more cumin to taste, if needed.  Makes about 6 cups.

You can double this recipe and freeze them, they freeze just fine.

Blueberry Muffins

This recipe also comes from my Maine's Jubilee Cookbook.  I've been making this recipe for about 16 years, and it's my favorite recipe.  It's a good texture, it's fairly low fat, and it's just good.  I also use this recipe as the base for other muffins.  Instead of blueberries, I have put chopped pears, peaches, and cherries to name a few.

Blueberry Muffins

2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup oil
1 cup milk
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup blueberries

Mix together sugar, oil, eggs and milk.  Add the flour, sifted with baking powder and salt.  Fold in blueberries last.  Bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees.

Makes 1 dozen muffins.  I always double it and freeze half of them.  We will polish off an entire dozen in one day.  My kids love these muffins, as does Rusty.

Apple Brownies

My mom used to make these, and I think we used to call them "Disappearing Brownies" because we'd eat the whole pan in one sitting (it only makes a 9x9 pan, but still, they're seriously good!)  This recipe comes from "Maine's Jubilee Cookbook."  When we got married 10 years ago, I wanted this cookbook because my mom has it, and it has THE.BEST blueberry muffin recipe in it.  It's been out of print for years, so my Grandmother got on Ebay and got it for me.  That still cracks me up, to think of my Grammie getting on EBAY and buying me a cookbook.  But I'm grateful for it, and I love it.

Apple Brownies

1 cup sugar
1/4 pound butter (1 stick)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 apples, chopped fine
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Cream sugar and butter.  Add the slightly beaten egg and vanilla.  Sift flour with salt, baking powder and soda.  Add to the creamed mixture with the chopped apple and the nuts.  Bake in an 8x8 pan at 350 degrees until done, about 25 minutes.

White Pizza

My sister and I made pizza on Sunday night, and we NAILED the white pizza!  White pizza is a favorite with my sisters and our mom, and I think we set a personal record for the best white pizza on Sunday.  It's simple, but oh so good, and very cheesy.

White Pizza

Dough for a 12 inch pizza
6-8 ounces Chevre
3 ounces Feta cheese
4 ounces Gorgonzola cheese (a kind of blue cheese, but a little more mellow)
1/2 cup FRESH grated Parmesan cheese
Mozzarella cheese
Garlic butter (I didn't have any, and I'm not a huge garlic fan, but my mom uses this and it's good.)

Spread dough on greased pizza pan.  Lightly spread garlic butter on pizza dough.  Spread Chevre on the dough, then evenly distribute the Feta, Gorgonzola and Parmesan.  Cover with Mozzarella cheese and bake until crust is cooked and lightly brown on the bottom, and cheese is melted.

Serve, and try not to eat the whole pizza in one sitting!

I would love Greek olives on this pizza, but I'm the only one who likes olives, so we usually leave them off.  Liz loves this pizza, it's the only one she'll eat.  You can vary the amounts of cheese depending on your taste.  I adore Chevre, so I might add a little more to it.

Lentils and Rice

This is a very simple dish, but really yummy.  I used to hate it when I was a kid, but I love it now.  This is a great dish for a cold night.  I love it plain, but I also love it with a little Italian dressing on it.  That's the only way I can get Liz to eat it.  I think some fresh lemon juice would be good too.

Lentils and Rice

1/2 cup lentils
1/2 cup brown rice
1 onion minced (or 4 TBSP dehydrated onion)
1/2 tsp curry powder
2 1/2 cups water
1 tsp olive oil

Put all ingredients in pot and cook on medium low heat until lentils and rice are both tender and all water is absorbed, about 40 minutes.  If water is gone but rice is still crunchy, add a little more water, cook until absorbed, then check again.  Makes about 3 servings (I usually double it for the 5 of us).

If you use white rice, cook the lentils by themselves for about 15 minutes, then add the white rice, since white rice takes less time to cook than the lentils do.  Adjust the amount of curry to your taste preference.  This is either a good main dish or a side dish.

I made this Monday night, and Liz gobbled hers up and then said, "I love this!  I forgot how good it is, but I love it."  Miraculous I tell you, nothing short of miraculous!

I put some caramelized red onions and wheat sprouts on top of mine, and it was super yummy.  I doubled the recipe, and we ate it all.

Classic Italian Lasagna

Here is the Classic Italian Lasagna.  It's so good, I want to make it again, and we just ate the last of it last Thursday.  Once again I got the recipe here.  All I can say is, go make it, just go, NOW!  And then come back and thank me.


Classic Italian Lasagna


*Makes one 9x13 inch pan of lasagna.


Red Sauce:
2 TBSP olive oil
1 TBSP butter
4 cloves fresh garlic, finely minced
1/2 large onion, diced (about 1/2 cup.  I used 1 small onion)
8 ounces mushrooms, chopped
2 8-ounce cans tomato sauce
1 6-ounce cane tomato paste
1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper


White Sauce:
3 cups milk (not skim, I used 1%)
5 TBSP flour
4 TBSP butter
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper


9 lasagna noodles, boiled for half the time on the box (I would boil them for about 8 minutes or use 12 of the no-boil noodles)
1 pound ground turkey
1 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded
8 ounces Parmesan cheese, shredded


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking pan with cooking spray and set aside.


In a large skillet, brown the ground turkey over medium high heat, breaking the meat apart into pieces with a wooden spoon.  When turkey is cooked through, drain the grease and set aside.  


In a medium size saucepan over medium high heat, add 2 TBSP olive oil and one tablespoon butter.  Add a pinch of salt and pepper.  When oil/butter is hot, add the garlic, stirring constantly.  When the garlic is lightly browned, but NOT burned, add the onion and mushrooms.  Continue cooking on medium high heat until the vegetables are soft and browned and the fluid has mostly cooked out.  Remove from heat and blend to a paste like mixture in a blender.  Return the pot to the heat (pout the pureed vegetables back in), and add the tomato sauce and tomato paste.  Stir to combine.  Then add the diced tomatoes, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper.  Stir.  Cover and let the sauce simmer for 30 minutes over medium low heat, stirring occasionally.  Right before using the red sauce in the lasagna, stir in the reserved ground turkey.


While the red sauce simmers, if using lasagna noodles that need to be boiled, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and boil the noodle for half the time suggested on the box.  Once the noodles are cooked, drain, but do not rinse.  Add a dab of olive oil to keep the from sticking together.  If you are using no-boil noodles, you can skip this step.


Also while the red sauce is cooking, melt the four tablespoons butter and when melted, add the flour, stirring constantly to combine and letting the mixture cook, while stirring, for a minute or two.  Gradually add in the milk, whisking constantly.  Add the salt and pepper.  Slowly whisk the white sauce, ensuring it doesn't burn on the bottom of the pan, while cooking it over medium heat.  Continue slowly stirring or whisking while the white sauce cooks and thickens quite a bit, about 5-7 minutes.  


To begin layering the lasagna, keep in mind that you'll have three layers of noodles as well as three layers of the sauces and cheese, so plan on splitting all the sauce and cheese piles into thirds so you don't run out at the end. On the bottom of your lightly greased baking pan, layers three pre-boiled noodles or four no-boil noodles, slightly overlapping the no-boil noodles.  Layer the red sauce, white sauce, Parmesan and mozzarella cheeses, spreading all to the edges and top with another layer of noodles.  Again, layer the red sauce, white sauce, Parmesan and mozzarella cheeses and top with the final layer of noodles.  Layer the sauces and cheeses again.


Cover the lasagna with a greased layer of aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes.  Remove the foil and let the lasagna sit for 15 minutes before cutting and serving.




The lasagna was almost too salty, so I would omit the salt from one of the sauces next time I made it.  I would also bake it for 40 minutes, and let it sit for 15 minutes after baking.  Letting it sit helps it to set up and not be too soupy.  This was so worth the work, and I don't think I'll ever be able to use canned sauce again.  

Basic Lasagna

I love lasagna. And I think I make a pretty good lasagna. It's cheesy and melty and full of carbs (I love me some pasta). But the other day I made a very delicious lasagna. It was so good. The sauce was home made, and I don't know if I'll ever be able to go back to the canned stuff. And it had a creamy white sauce. It was so very delicious that I had it for breakfast the next morning (and I think it was even better the next morning!) I'll post that recipe tomorrow, but for today, here's a basic lasagna recipe that's very similar to mine (except I don't usually put meat in it, and when I do, I use sausage, because I just really don't like hamburger at all. And mine is all out of my head, so there's no measurements, so you can thank me later for giving you a user friendly recipe!)

Once again, this recipe comes from here, my favorite cooking site.

Basic Lasagna

1 package oven ready lasagna noodles (or the traditional ones that need to be boiled)

1 to 1 1/2 pounds ground beef (or sausage)

1 cup chopped onion

1 28-ounce can tomatoes, undrained

2 6-ounce cans tomato paste

2 tsp sugar

2 1/2 tsp dried basil

1/4 tsp pepper

1 container (15 ounce) ricotta cheese

1 egg, beaten

1 TBSP parsley flakes

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup grated Parmesan (fresh, NOT the nasty stuff from the green bottle!)

4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (I use half mozzarella, half sharp cheddar)

Boil noodles if you went with the traditional ones. Cook ground beef and onion, drain. Stir in tomatoes (undrained), tomato paste, sugar, 2 tsp of the basil and the pepper. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 20-30 minutes. In a small bowl blend ricotta, egg, parsley, Parmesan cheese and 1/2 tsp salt. Put a layer of noodle in a 9x13 pan, a layer of meat sauce, layer of ricotta mixture, and a layer of the cheese, then repeat all the layers twice more. Cover with foil. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes. Uncover, bake 20 minutes more. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting (this will help it set up and it won't be so soupy).

Lucky Green Velvet Cupcakes

These are green cupcakes, but I'm going to divide the batch in half, and make half of them green, and half light purple. I'll freeze the purple ones and we can decorate them for Easter. I found the recipe here.

Lucky Green Velvet Cupcakes

1 box yellow cake mix

4 eggs

1/2 cup water

1 small box instant vanilla pudding mix

1/2 cup plain yogurt or sour cream

Green decorating paste (or whatever color you want)

Frosting

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a stand or electric mixer, add cake mix, eggs, water, oil, pudding, and yogurt (or sour cream). Beat on medium for 1 1/2 minutes. Slowly beat in 5-8 drops of decorating paster until you get desired color.

Scoop batter into greased cupcake tins. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until cooked through. Let cool completely.

Frost cupcakes and decorate as desired.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 (8oz) package cream cheese at room temperature

1/4 cup butter at room temperature

4 cups sifted powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Mix cream cheese and butter until smooth and creamy (I think it works best to use hand held beaters). Mix in vanilla. Mix in powdered sugar, one cup at a time. Frost cupcakes.

Stewed Zucchini

This is a really simple recipe, with few ingredients, but very healthy, and very tasty. I love it. It's a great dish to make when you're overwhelmed with fresh tomatoes at the peak of tomato season.

A handy little tip for those extra tomatoes in the summer: Wash them, core them, and then freeze them in a Ziploc bag. When you want some tomatoes in soup, or for this sauce, take out the amount of tomatoes you need and let them sit on the counter for at least 6 hours. When they've softened up some, the skins will slip right off, and you can add them to a soup, or make a fresh tasting sauce off season. You can also throw them straight from the freezer into the soup, and in about 3 minutes you'll be able to slip the skins off.

Stewed Zucchini

About 7 little zucchinis (you can adjust this by how much zucchini you want, I like a lot)

6-8 large tomatoes

1 small onion

garlic

salt to taste

1/8 cup chopped fresh basil*

Slice the zucchinis in half the long way, then chop into pieces about 1/4 inch thick. Saute the onion in a little olive oil until translucent, then add the tomatoes. Cook until they start to soften and get a little saucy, then add the zucchini. Cook until the zucchini is tender. If desired, you can cook the tomatoes until they start to thicken, then add the zucchini and cook until tender. I cheated the other day added half a can of tomato paste to help it thicken, because I didn't give myself enough time to let it thicken on its own. If you're going to cook it until it gets thick, it will take about 2 hours to boil off enough liquid. Season to taste, and serve over noodles and top with fresh grated parmesan. I used dried homemade style noodles that I just got at Wal-Mart (oh the shame! ) and they were actually really good noodles. Tomorrow I'll post a homemade noodle recipe that I made with my sister a couple months ago and they were really good (but a lot of work).

*Another fresh tip. To have fresh basil all year, harvest several cups of leaves and wash them. Put them in food processor and grind to desired fineness. Scoop into clean ice cube tray, and pack firmly. Place in freezer. Once the cubes are solid, remove them from the tray and put them in a Ziploc bag. Voila! Fresh basil all year! Just take a cube out and throw it into whatever you're making. It melts in a matter of minutes, and you get the fresh taste of basil all year long.

Hawaiian Haystacks

I had never even heard about Hawaiian Haystacks until I came to Utah for college. I didn't think about them for years, then I made them about a year ago, and the kids loved them, and just last week, I saw this post and had to laugh, because I was already planning to post about them myself. The fun thing about Hawaiian Haystacks is that you can make them to fit your family and your tastes. I do use cream of mushroom soup as the gravy for the chicken, but I think I might try this recipe next time I make them.

I prefer to use my crock pot chicken for the chicken in this recipe, because I prefer the chicken to be shredded, I like it better that way. But my crock pot met a tragic end last week, so I currently have no crock pot. This is a very simple, no planning required dinner. I usually save it for a night when I didn't plan ahead.

Hawaiian Haystacks

1 pound cooked chickcen, diced or shredded

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

Toppings of your choice, we like:

Peas

Corn

Pineapple

Mandarin oranges

Black olives

Red pepper

Craisins

Sunflower seeds

Mushrooms

Mix the chicken and soup/gravy together in a sauce pan, and heat until bubbly, adding milk to make it the consistency you like.

To serve:

Put a small amount of rice on your plate (start small, it gets really big FAST!), then top with chicken and gravy, then add the toppings you like. Rusty and the girls prefer the sweeter toppings, I prefer only the savory toppings, I don't like mixing sweet and savory in this dish. It sounds really weird, and it kind of is, but it's strangely good.

Rainbow Cupcakes

I'm a little behind this year. I always plan to do fun activities for the holidays with the kids, but then never actually get around to it. This is a really cute idea. It's a smaller scale than the rainbow cake I made, and easier. I found the idea here.

Rainbow Cupcakes

White cake mix

Food coloring (I prefer the Wilton pastes, and you can just buy the colors you need instead of mixing the four basic colors that come in those funny little bottles)

Baking cups

Whipped cream (optional)

Prepare the white cake mix according to the box, then divide the mix evenly among six small bowls. Dye each bowl of batter a rainbow color; purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red.

Line 16 muffin pan wells with baking cups. Evenly distribute the purple batter among the cups, then the blue, and so on, following the order stated. As you go, gently spread each layer of batter with the back of the spoon to cover the color underneath.

Bake the cupcakes according to the directions. Before serving, remove the paper wrapping, and if you like, top each cupcake with a whipped cream cloud.

Rainbow cupcakes toppers would be super cute on these, as well as little gold sprinkles.

Ideas

I am starting to run out of ideas for recipes. I tend to make the same few recipes for a couple of years, and I've posted most of them. So if anyone has a certain recipe they want to see, let me know, and I'll post it. To help me remember, I'm planning to post the best blueberry muffins, apple brownies (seriously sooooo yummy), zucchini bread and pumpkin bread, and a chocolate marshmallow cake (as soon as I make it!)

So please, start asking or the posts are going to slow waaaaaaay down!

Baked Rice

I've had bad luck with rice lately. It's never the right consistency, either too wet or too dry and crunchy, and I burn it about 50% of the time. So when I saw this recipe, I had to try it. It was so simple, but very good, and it makes your house smell really good. When the kids walked in, they were absolutely convinced that they smelled popcorn! :)

Baked Brown Rice

1 1/2 cups brown rice

2 1/2 cups chicken broth (I used 2 1/2 cups water and 2 chicken bouillon cubes)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the ingredients in a 3-quart baking pan or casserole dish and cover tightly with aluminum foil. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit for five minutes before removing the aluminum foil and fluffing with a fork.

This makes about 3 1/2 cups of rice, or enough for at least 7 people. I used an 8x8 glass baking dish, and it worked just fine.

Gyros

Again, this recipe came from this site. The chicken was very yummy chicken. This does take quite a bit of time, but I think it's worth it. It is heavy on lemon though, so if you don't like lemon, you might not like this meal.

Chicken Gyros

4 cloves garlic, smashed

Juice of 1 lemon

2 tsp red wine vinegar

2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil

2 heaping TBSP plain yogurt (I used sour cream)

1 TBSP dried oregano

salt and pepper

1 1/4 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed

Combine the garlic, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, olive oil, yogurt, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste in a medium bowl (I doubled the marinade, and I think it was just right for this amount of chicken). Whisk together until mixed well. Add the chicken pieces to the bowl and mix well to coat. Cover and refrigerate for about 1 hour.

Cook the chicken as desired, either in the skillet or with the broiler (I broiled them, and I thought it worked perfectly). Once the chicken is completely cooked through, transfer to a plate and let rest for 5 minutes.

Heat pitas, top with chicken, tzatziki sauce, diced tomatoes and sliced onions. Serve immediately.

Tzatziki Sauce

This is the sauce that you would put on gyros and a lot of Indian foods. I love it, I usually order a side of it Indian restaurants and just eat it with a spoon. I splurged and bought real Greek yogurt sine this was the first time I've ever made it, but I don't know if I'll do that again. The Greek yogurt was super expensive and hard to find, and pretty strong. I think I'll just strain some plain yogurt next time. I found this recipe here.

Tzatziki Sauce

16 oz plain yogurt (not fat free unless it is Greek yogurt)

1 cucumber (I used 1 1/2, but I didn't strain my yogurt, because it was Greek yogurt, so I had more yogurt than you would have if you strained plain yogurt)

2-3 cloves garlic, pressed through a garlic press

1 tsp red wine vinegar

salt and pepper

Squeeze of fresh lemon juice

Extra virgin olive oil

Strain the yogurt using cheesecloth over a bowl. Let strain for at least a few hours, overnight is better. You'll be surprised how much liquid drains from the yogurt. You want the yogurt thicl and creamy.

Shred the cucumber. Wrap in a towel and squeeze to remove as much water as possible. Again, you'll be surprised how much water comes out of it. Mix together the strained yogurt, shredded cucumber, garlic, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper to taste (it takes quite a bit of salt), and lemon juice to taste. Drizzle lightly with olive oil (I didn't do this part, because I hate oil on top of my food). Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to let the flavors meld.

Serve with Gyros or Naan.

Flat Bread

This recipe comes from this site, which is my favorite recipe site. Besides the fact that she uses way too much cream, her recipes are right up my alley, and they're generally easy and down to earth. I don't have time for fancy ingredients or recipes that take 6 hours to prep, or are super fussy recipes. So this site is where I've gotten a lot of my ideas lately and I love it. I love Greek food, so when she posted about this flat bread, I knew I had to make gyros (pronounced like Euros.) I'll post the flat bread recipe today, and the recipe for the gyros filling tomorrow. This bread was good with the gyros as well as with honey butter (I'm a total copycat!) And I think they would be good as simple, mini pizzas as well, if there were left overs, which there weren't when I made them!

Soft Wrap Bread

From King Arthur Flour

Make about 8-9 breads (I 1 1/2ed the recipe so it made 12 breads. We had company, and there were only 3 left over)

3 to 3 1/4 cups flour

1 1/2 cups boiling water

1/4 cup potato flour OR 1/2 cup potato flakes (I used potato flakes because they're cheaper)

1 1/4 tsp salt

2 TBSP vegetable oil

1 tsp instant yeast

Place 2 cups of the flour into a bowl or the bucket of a bread machine (I used my Bosch). Pour the boiling water over the flour, and stir until smooth. Cover the bowl and set aside for 30 minutes.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the potato flour (or flakes) and 1 cup of the remaining flour with the salt, oil and yeast. Add this to the cooled flour/water mixture, stir, then knead for several minutes (by hand, mixer or bread machine) to form a soft dough.

You can allow the dough to go through the entire kneading cycle in the bread machine, but it's not necessary, about a 5-minute knead in the machine, once it gets up to full kneading speed, is fine. The dough should form a ball, but will remain somewhat sticky (the dough is fairly stiff, so don't be worried, just be careful not to over flour the dough). Add additional flour only is necessary; if kneading by hand, keep your hands and work surface lightly oiled (I didn't add any more flour to mine). Let the dough rise, covered, for 1 hour (I think it needs more like 2 hours to rise).

Divide the dough into 8 pieces (each about the size of a handball), cover, and let rest for 15 to 30 minutes. Roll each piece into a 7-8 inch circle and dry-fry them (fry without oil) on a griddle or frying pan over medium heat for about 1 minute per side (I used my cast iron frying pan, and it worked like a charm), until they're puffed and flecked with brown spots. Adjust the heat if they seem to be cooking to quickly which means they may be raw in the center, while too slowly will dry them out. Transfer cooked breads to a wire rack, stacking them to keep them soft (I put the on a plate and covered them with a towel.) Serve immediately.

This recipe took a lot of time, but not too much work. And it's definitely worth it. I love pita bread/flat bread, but I hate the stale, cardboardy stuff that they sell in the grocery store. This is a nice alternative. I bet you could even freeze them and then use them as needed (I like to keep pita bread in the freezer and take one out for my lunch or when we're having burgers and I have a veggie burger).

Shepherds Pie

I grew up with one version of shepherds pie. When we got married, I made it, and Rusty didn't like it, because he was used to his mom's way of making it. Then, when we were in Australia, I saw a cooking show, and I was intrigued by the version of shepherd's pie that they made. I started making it, and we've never gone back. It's very different, but give it a try, I think you'll like it. It makes a lot of the bottom filling, so I always freeze half of it and make another shepherd's pie a couple weeks later.

Shepherd's Pie

1 pound sausage or hamburger (I prefer sausage)

1 small onion, diced

1 can corn

2 small zucchini's, diced

1 cup diced carrots

4 stalks celery, chopped

1 cup green peas

2 cups water

2 chicken gravy packets

3 large sweet potatoes, cubed

Put the sweet potatoes in a pot, cover with water, and cook over medium heat

While potatoes are cooking, saute the onion and sausage until cooked, then set aside. In same pan, saute the celery, and carrots about five minutes, then add the zucchini and cook until tender. Add the peas, corn, sausage mixture, water and gravy packets, and cook until gravy has thickened. (Reduce water to 1 cup, and only use 1 gravy packet if you don't want a lot of gravy.) Pour half the mixture into an 8x8 pan, and the rest into another 8x8 pan. Let the second pan cool, then place in freezer. It will keep for several months, until you're ready to make another shepherd's pie.

When the potatoes are soft, drain and mash. Add a little milk if the potatoes are too dry. Top the sausage/vegetable mix with the sweet potatoes and bake at 350 degrees until nice and bubbly. Liz doesn't like sweet potatoes, so I usually make a small batch of instant potatoes, and put them on one corner of the filling.

Chicken Enchiladas

I was going to take a picture of this meal, but it's really not the prettiest meal. Picture an enchilada with sour creamy chicken covered with diced tomatoes and chilies. Just not that pretty. But oh so yummy. This is one of the few meals that I have made with consistency the ten years we've been married. It was one of the first meals I made as newlyweds (much better than the half cooked turkey!), and it was a hit with Rusty, so I've kept making it.

Chicken Enchiladas

1 large chicken breast, cooked and cubed

5 tortillas

2 cups sour cream (I use low fat, and it's just fine)

1 small onion, finely chopped

2 cans diced tomatoes, with juice

1 can diced green chilies

Chili powder

1/2 cup salsa

Mix chicken and sour cream together. Place 1/5 of the mixture in a tortilla, roll the tortilla and place in a greased 9x9 baking pan. Continue until all the chicken mixture is used up.

Saute onion until soft, then add the chilies and tomatoes, and simmer until sauce starts to thicken. Add chili powder and salsa to taste. Pour on top of the rolled tortillas. Place in oven and bake at 350 until hot and bubbly. Put shredded cheese on top, and cook another 5 minutes.

Tips

I have lots of little tips that I use to make my cooking easier, but I have three tips that I wanted to share right now.

1. Chicken. I don't like raw chicken. Especially cutting up raw chicken. It's so slimy and soft and hard to cut. So, I take a chicken breast out of the freezer, and let it sit for a couple hours. When it's starting to get a little soft on the outside, I take a knife and cut it up. My hands freeze, but the chicken is ten times easier to cut into the shape you want it, and it's not so slimy and icky.

2. Cooking chicken. A lot of the things I make use chicken that's cooked before putting everything together. So I like to fill my crock pot with chicken and then cook it all day. The chicken is nice and soft, and in one easy step, I just cooked enough chicken for at least 5 different meals. I put the chicken into containers and freeze it, and then I can just take it out and use it when needed. I use the cooked chicken in chicken enchiladas, Hawaiian haystacks, chicken pot pie, baked chicken sandwiches, chicken soup and broccoli, chicken rice casserole, to name a few.

3. Ripening pears. I love pears, but the ones from the store are always hard and not ripe. And I never had luck getting them to ripen until I found out this little trick. When you get the pears home, take them out of the plastic bag and put them in a paper bag. Fold the top of the paper bag down, and put them in a corner. Leave them for a few days, but don't forget them! They'll be nice and ripe in just a couple days. This works with green tomatoes too when it's too cold for them to ripen on the vine.

Make Your Own Salads

This is a really easy dinner, but we all like it, and there's no complaining because everyone gets to pick what goes on their own salad. And you can use up stuff out of your food storage, so it's a win-win all around. These are the foods that we like, but you can just add or take away whatever you want.

1 can corn

1 can kidney beans

1 can black olives, sliced

1 cucumber

1 red pepper

1 cup green peas

1 cup chopped broccoli

1 cup chopped carrots

Craisins

Sunflower seeds

Chopped lettuce

Put all the toppings into bowls and let everyone make their own salads. Simple and easy, and good served with homemade bread. A healthy, yummy meal with no cooking and little mess!

I don't like pie crust, so I make this recipe with biscuits on top instead of pie crust. So it's kind of like chicken and dumplings, except it's not a soup. So I really don't know WHAT to call it, except yummyness. Sometimes I get a little carried away making the filling, and I make way too much of it. When that happens, I get out 2 9x9 pans, and divide the filling between the two. I'll put the biscuits on top of one of the pans, and the other pan I put a cover on and put it in the freezer. When I'm ready to make the second pan (a couple weeks or even a month later), I just pull it out, let it thaw, then make the biscuits, put them on top, and back. 2 meals with about half the work, because it really doesn't take any more prep time to make enough filling for two meals. I do the same thing with shepherds pie (which maybe I'll make this week and post!)

Chicken Pot Pie

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed

1/2 cup chopped carrots

1 onion, chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped

1 cup frozen peas

1 cup water

1 packet chicken or brown gravy

Put diced chicken in large pot and brown, then add the carrots, celery and onion, and cook until vegetable are soft. Add the peas, 1 cup water, and gravy packet, and cook until gravy is bubbly and thick. Pour into 9x9 baking pan.

Biscuits

2 cups flour

1 TBSP baking powder

2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup shortening or butter

2/3 cup milk

In a mixing bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, sugar, cream of tartar, and salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add milk all at once. Using a fork, stir until just moistened.

Roll out dough, cut biscuit pieces, and place on top of the vegetable and chicken mixture. Once mixture is covered, put in oven at 350 degrees. Bake about 35 minutes, or until biscuits are golden brown and cooked through.

Serve and enjoy!

Beef Stew

When you make one of my recipes, you need to understand that about 75% of the time, I'm not following a recipe. I probably followed a recipe the first time I made it, then I adapted the recipe, and I make it out of my head. So a lot of my ingredients I'm just eyeballing, especially the spices, so always do the spices to taste. With that said, this was a really good recipe and I was truly winging it the whole way.

Beef Stew

1 pound stew meat (I like to buy the already diced stew meat because I hate cutting raw meat.)

1/4 cup flour

5 small potatoes peeled and cubed (you don't have to peel red potatoes if you have them)

1 cups chopped carrots

3 stalks celery, chopped

1 small onion, diced

5 cups water

4beef bouillon cubes

1 tsp worcestershire sauce

2 TBSP ketchup

Put the meat in a bag, put the flour in, and shake until coated. Grease a large soup pot and cook meat over high until it is browned on all sides (it doesn't need to be cooked all the way through, just browned). Don't panic, it will make a mess of your pan, but the next step will take care of that. Just make sure to not burn the flour.

Add water, bouillon cubes and the chopped vegetables. Reduce heat to medium, put cover on and simmer for about 1 hour. When vegetables are nice and tender, add the worcestershire sauce and the ketchup. If it needs more of either one, add a little more. Remove from heat and serve. Yummy yummy yum!

Barbecue Chicken

All I can say is I LOVE Barbecue Chicken! It's so, so easy to make, and it has saved my bacon many times over. I make a huge crock-pot of it, and then I freeze it in 2-cup containers for a quick meal.

Barbecue Chicken

6-7 chicken breasts (or as many as you can shove in your crock-pot)

2-3 bottles of your favorite barbecue sauce

Place the chicken in the crock pot, and pour in one bottle of barbecue sauce. Cook on low for at least 7 hours, until chicken is cooked through and comes apart easily when poked with a fork. Remove chicken from crock pot and drain all the juice (the chicken makes a ton of juice/fat, and it will be too juicy if you don't drain it now). Shred the chicken with two forks, and return it to the crock pot. Add half the second bottle of barbecue sauce. Stir, and add more sauce until it's as saucy as you like it (we like our chicken sauuu-ceeee!) I know it's a lot of barbecue sauce at one time, but it will last for a long time, so it's really worth it. Let the chicken simmer for another hour or so to let the sauce and chicken meld together. Place in containers (I use 2 cup ones, they're just the right size for 1 meal for us.)

Cool and then place in freezer. I use the chicken for barbecue chicken sandwiches when I don't feel like cooking, don't know what to cook, or ruin what I'm cooking that night! I also use it for barbecue chicken pizza. It's so nice to just be able to pull the chicken out, thaw it in just a couple hours, and just like that, dinner's ready!

A Little Break

I know I just started this blog, but this week is a big festival at the school, and I am one of the people in charge of it, so I don't think I'll be posting much this week. I don't know if I'll even be cooking much this week. So, hopefully I'll get some new recipes up at the end of the week. Until then, try some of the things I've already posted, and let me know if you like them!

Chicken, White Bean and Leek Soup

I forgot to get a picture of this dish, but it was really good. It's a very light tasting, but very flavorful soup, and very healthy.

Chicken, White Bean and Leek Soup

1 pound chicken

2 cans cannelini beans

3 leeks, chopped

1 pound red potatoes, diced

1 cup carrots, diced

3 stalks celery, diced

4-6 cups chicken broth

Bake the chicken at 350 degrees about 1 hour, or until juices run clear. While chicken is baking, diced the vegetables. Once chicken is baked, chop or shred it into bite size pieces and then set aside. Stir fry* vegetables in a big soup spot until they are just getting tender. Add the broth, and heat to boiling, then add the chicken and the beans. Salt and pepper to taste (this had a very nice, mellow flavor, and I didn't add any salt or pepper to it, I preferred the taste of the vegetables.) Serve and enjoy!

*Stir frying the vegetables instead of boiling them helps to maintain their fresh flavor, and makes the soup more flavorful. This was a tip from my sister, and I thought it made the soup taste better.

Roasted Vegetables

Side dishes are hard for me, I don't feel like I have very many, and it's hard for me to think of different, creative ways to make vegetables. But this is really yummy.

Roasted Vegetables

1 head broccoli, cauliflower or broccoflower, chopped into bite size pieces

2 red bell peppers, cut in chunks

2 cups baby carrots

olive oil

salt

Put chopped vegetables on large baking sheet. Lightly brush with olive oil, then sprinkle with salt (I like to use coarse salt). Cover with tin foil and bake at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until vegetables start to get tender. Remove tin foil and bake until they start to turn golden brown. Be careful, the broccoli can dry out if you're not careful. Cook until desired tenderness (I like them crisp tender). When you roast them, they taste fresher than when they are boiled or steamed, and it's easier to keep them from getting soggy. I've sprinkled them with Parmesan cheese before, and they're really good that way too.

Fancy Nachos

Some nights, I just don't feel like making anything, so we eat tortillas. Some weeks, we eat a lot of tortillas. One night, I wanted something different, but I didn't feel like making anything, and I had some shredded fajita meat in the freezer, so I came up with "fancy nachos." Pretty much just whatever you have or feel like putting on your nachos. Very, very simple, but very good. The kids love it.

1 bag of tortilla chips (I used blue chips last time, but use whatever you like)

1 can of black olives, sliced

1 can of beans (kidney or pinto)

Shredded meat

3 chopped tomatoes

Shredded cheese

Put the chips in a 9x13 pan, then put as many or as little of the toppings on as you like. This adds up really fast, so start with a little, and add more if you want it. Cover with cheese, and bake in oven at 350 for about 15 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly and melty.

I served them with a dip that the girls like, sour cream and salsa mixed together. The leftovers get soggy, so try to not make too much.

Macaroni and Cheese

This year, Megan requested macaroni and cheese for her birthday dinner. I always make my macaroni and cheese from scratch. My kids won't even eat the boxed macaroni and cheese. It's really pretty simple, and it's always yummy and cheesy.

1 pound noodles (I usually use penne, but sometimes macaroni noodles)

2 TBSP flour

2 TBSP butter

1 1/4 cups milk

3 cups shredded cheese (fresh shredded, NEVER preshredded cheese)*

salt, pepper and mustard powder to taste

Bring a pot of salted water to boiling, then add noodles and cook until tender. Drain noodles in colander and set aside.

Melt butter in the pot, then add the flour and stir until smooth, using a whisk (again, this is a roux.) Add about 1/2 the milk to the butter and flour mixture, stirring constantly, until milk is smooth and then add the rest of the milk. Stir constantly until mixture starts to bubble and thicken. Turn heat to low, and add the cheese. Stir continuously until mixture is smooth. Add salt, pepper and mustard powder to taste. Add noodles, and stir until all noodles are coated in cheese. Serve with broccoli or roasted vegetables. This makes a really big pot of noodles, but we eat it all in one meal, with just enough leftover for lunches the next day.

*Preshredded cheese is coated with flour to keep it from becoming a big clump in the bag, but that means that it doesn't melt well. I always buy a 5-pound block of sharp cheddar from Costco, shred it in my food processor, and then freeze it in gallon ziploc bag. It freezes well, is the cheapest way to buy sharp cheddar, and I always have cheese on hand.

Tortellini Leek Soup

I made up a little recipe for dinner tonight. It came out really well! So well, that there's no leftovers for my lunch! The girls even asked to take it to school for lunch, which means it was good!

Here's my recipe. Very simple, but tasty.

1/2 a large butternut squash, peeled and chopped into bite size pieces
3 leeks
1 small bag of tortellini
3 cans of chicken stock

Slice leeks into thin circles. Chop squash into bite size pieces. Stir fry leeks for a couple minutes, then add the chicken broth and the squash. Boil for about 10 minutes, then add the tortellini. Boil until tortellini is soft. Serve with biscuits.

It was tasty yet very simple. I LOVE squash this time of year, but Liz doesn't like it, so I have to think of ways to put it into dishes. She liked it in this soup, not a single complaint, and she downed her bowl faster than anyone else. You could change it up by adding different spices, a can of tomatoes, or some sausage.

Awhile ago, I made Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake. I got it here. It was really, really good. Our girls don't like Pumpkin Pie, but they loved it and declared it "delicious." I don't have a picture, but it's definitely worth trying.


2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 pinch ground cloves
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1/2 cup frozen whipped topping, thawed



Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).

In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Blend in eggs one at a time. Remove 1 cup of batter and spread into bottom of crust; set aside.

Add pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg to the remaining batter and stir gently until well blended. Carefully spread over the batter in the crust.

Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until center is almost set. Allow to cool, then refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight. Cover with whipped topping before serving.

Pizza

Growing up, we were allowed to pick what we wanted for dinner on our birthday. I don't remember having a lot of friend parties, and I don't feel deprived, I remember loving being able to pick what we had for dinner that night. Over the years, it became tradition to request homemade pizza, and to me, that has become THE birthday dinner. (The only time I ever remember requesting something else was when I was 8 or 9, and I requested spaghetti with little fish (maybe fresh sardines?) and some kind of greens, like beet greens. (Mom, help me out with the details if you remember!) I've tried to continue this tradition with our kids, but imagine my dismay when their favorite birthday dinner has turned out to be..............RAMEN NOODLES! Oh, where did I go wrong?!? Just kidding. I still get to pick my and Rusty's and Katie's birthday dinners, and we all choose pizza! :)

The way I make pizza is my classic way of cooking. I don't use a recipe. My pizza dough is very, very basic. It's not soft and bready, it's just water, salt, yeast and water. I start by making the dough. I let it sit for about 20 minutes, just to rest, it doesn't really need to rise. In the above picture, I had tried prebaking my crust. I don't really like that method. I prefer to spread the dough in the pan, then put the sauce and cheese on it, and then our favorite toppings. Some of our favorite toppings include:

Barbecue chicken

Mushrooms

Pineapple

Olives

Turkey

Broccoli

Liz has decided that she prefers just plain cheese. No one really likes pepperoni, so I never make it anymore. I prefer veggie, so I always makes a small part veggie for me, with tomatoes, broccoli, onions, feta, artichoke hearts, and kalamata olives.

When my mom was here in the summer, we made a really good white cheese pizza by putting some garlic on the dough (no tomato sauce), then feta cheese, parmesan, blue cheese, queso fresco, and chevre. Seriously, so yummy.

Lemon Meringue Pie

I had a friend request that I post my recipe for Lemon Meringue Pie, so I decided to make it for myself for my birthday since I don't really like cake, and this is my favorite pie. When Rusty and I were dating, I learned that his favorite pie was Lemon Meringue Pie, so I decided to make him one. It didn't turn out so well, the lemon part didn't firm up. So I made another one. The lemon part of the second one was like rubber (I may have overdone the cornstarch just a little)! So I made another one, and the lemon part was soup again. The fourth time (I think), I followed the directions EXACTLY (I have a little problem with following the directions :)), and this time it came out well. The recipe I used last weekend was from my trusty Betty Crocker cookbook. It has a failproof recipe for meringue (yet another time, I was making pies for Thanksgiving, and I went through 2 dozen eggs and finally ended up buying a new bowl and measuring cups because I could get the meringue to firm up)! The inside is a little soup because the pie was a little warm still. By the next morning the lemon part was the perfect consistency, so I would suggest making this at least 6 hours before you need to serve it so it has plenty of time to chill. If you want to serve it warm, just know that the lemon part will be a little runny but still very, very good.

Pie Crust

1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup plus 1 TBSP shortening
2-3 TBSP cold water

Mix flour and salt in medium bowl. Cut in shortening with shortening cutter or 2 knives, until particles are size of small peas. Sprinkle with cold water, 1 TBSP at a time, tossing with fork until all flour is moistened.

Gather pastry into ball and refrigerate about 30 minutes. On floured surface, flatten pie crust into circle 2 inches bigger than pie plate. Fold pastry into fourths, and place in pie plate. Unfold pastry, and press firmly against side and bottom of pie plate. Heat oven to 425 and bake for 10 minutes, then remove from oven.

Pie filling

3 large egg yolks (reserve whites for meringue)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup plus 1 TBSP cornstarch
1 1/2 cups water
3 TBSP butter
2 tsp grated lemon peel
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 drops yellow food color, if desired

Beat egg yolks with fork in small bowl, set aside. Mix sugar and cornstarch in 2-quart saucepan. Stir in water. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir 1 minute

Immediately stir at least half of the hot mixture into egg yolks, then stir back into hot mixture in saucepan. Boil and stir 1 minute, remove from heat. Stir in butter, lemon peel, lemon juice and food color (I never add the food color). Press plastic wrap on filling to prevent a tough layer from forming on top (I've never done this and never had a problem with a tough layer on top).

Finish making meringue.

Meringue

1/2 cup sugar
4 tsp cornstarch
1/2 cup cold water
4 large egg whites
1/8 tsp salt

Mix sugar and cornstarch in saucepan. Stir in water. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil 1 minute, remove from heat. Cool completely while making pie filling.

Beat egg whites and salt in large bowl with electric mixer on high speed until soft peaks just start to form. Very gradually beat in sugar mixture until stiff peaks form.

Pour hot pie filling into pie crust. Spoon meringue on top of pie filling, and smooth to the edges of the pie crust. This will prevent the meringue from shrinking as it bakes. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, or until meringue is light brown. Cool away from draft for 2 hours, then cover and refrigerate until serving.



A couple notes:
*When making the meringue, make sure all beaters, spoons, spatulas, bowl, anything that touches the meringue are clean and have not touched oil. Any oil at all will cause the meringue to never become firm.
*As always, refrigerate all leftovers. Any dessert with fruit should be refrigerated after serving.
*The sugar/cornstarch mixture helps make the meringue foolproof, and keeps it from shrinking and weeping.

Whole Wheat Bread

This is my mom's bread recipe. It actually comes from my Dad's mother, I believe, and my Dad taught my Mom how to make it when they got married. It's my all time favorite wheat bread recipe, and I have finally gotten to where I feel like it's perfect home made bread. It has phenomenal taste, it's soft but somewhat chewy, and it holds together really well so I can slice it really thin and make sandwiches out of it (I always hated sandwiches on homemade bread because the bread was sooooo thick). The trick is to use fresh ground wheat flour. You'll get a much better gluten mixture, and the bread will stick together and be a better texture.



Whole Wheat Bread

5 cups hot water
6 cups whole wheat flour

Beat the hot water and flour together until mixture becomes shiny, sticky and clumpy. I use my electric beaters, because my arm gets really tired, but my Mom always beat it by hand (maybe because she had 6 girls!) This helps to release the gluten in the wheat and will make the bread stick together better.

1/2 cup warm water
1 TBSP sugar
2 1/2 TBSP yeast

Put yeast and sugar in warm water while beating the hot water and flour together. The yeast will dissolve in the water and will become bubbly. Make sure to use a 2-cup measuring cup as the yeast mixture will grow.

2/3 cup honey
2/3 cup oil
2 tsp salt
1 cup flour

Add to the water and flour mixture, and stir well. Then add the yeast mixture and another cup of flour and mix together. At this point, you will have a sticky dough. Continue to add dough until dough is just a little sticky, about 6 more cups. Oil your counter or bread board, and turn dough onto oiled surface. Oil your hands, and start kneading the dough. I knead it for about 5 minutes, my mom would say you should do 10 minutes. Dough should be shiny and satiny feeling. Oiling the surface instead of flouring it keeps your dough from getting too dry, and will help the bread to be moist and not crumbly.

Put dough back in bowl, cover with a towel, and let rise for about 1 hour, until indentation remains in dough when poked.

Divide dough into four equal loaves, shape, and place in greased bread pans. Let rise about 45 minutes, then place in oven at 350 degrees. Bake for about 30 minutes, until loaves are golden brown, sound hollow when tapped, and move in the pan when you shake the pan. Remove loaves from pans a couple minutes after taking out of the oven. If you leave them in the pans, the bottoms will get soggy. Slice and enjoy!

Squash Black Bean Soup

This is another really good soup. The kids really liked it, except for the ham. (Funny story, last night we had taco soup, and I had put hamburger in it, which I usually don't. Liz said, "It's weird, I've never had taco soup with meat in it before!" I put the meat versions of my recipes on here, but normally I don't put the meat in when I make them for us.) As you can tell, I really like soup, especially in the winter. The recipe said to puree 2 of the cans of black beans, but I wouldn't do it again, it made the soup gray. It was still yummy, but not so pretty,

Squash Black Bean Soup

2 15 ounce cans black beans, drained

1 (16 ounce) can diced tomatoes

1/4 cup butter

1 1/4 cups chopped onion

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

4 cups broth

1 squash

1/2 pound cubed cooked ham

1-3 tablespoons sherry vinegar(I used cider vinegar)

Directions

Bake the squash until tender. Puree the squash with the can of tomatoes and set aside.

Melt butter in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, season with salt and pepper. Cook and stir until the onion is softened. Stir in the squash puree, the black beans, broth, and sherry vinegar to taste (I only used 1 TBSP, and it was too much for us, so be careful!) Mix until well blended, then simmer for about 25 minutes, adding water if too thick. Stir in the ham, and heat through before serving.

I would add a can of corn also, but I've been accuse of overusing corn lately, so use your own judgment!

Cream of Broccoli Soup

My cooking seems to be suffering from the mid-winter blues. I don't know what to cook, and I don't want to cook lately, and I especially don't want to blog. So, I am going to cook to force myself out of it. Really, it's just February, and gray and cold, and I'll be fine. This soup is a great one to help you feel a little better. It's from my Betty Crocker cookbook, my trusty, faithful cookbook that I bought when I was in college, so she's really old, and showing her age, but I love her. Truly, I've owned tons of cookbooks, and this is one of the few that has survived multiple purges over the years.

Cream of Broccoli Soup

1 1/2 pounds broccoli
2 cups water
1 large stalk celery, chopped (3/4 cup)
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
2 TBSP butter
2 TBSP flour
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
dash of nutmeg
1/2 cup whipping cream
shredded cheese, if wanted

Remove flowerets from broccoli, set aside. Cut stalks into 1-inch pieces (peel them first), discarding any leaves. (I buy my broccoli at Costco, in the big 3-pound bag, so it's only flowerets, no stalks.)

Heat water to boiling in large pot. Add broccoli, celery and onion. Cover and heat to boiling, reduce heat. Simmer about 10 minutes or until broccoli is tender (do not drain).



Carefully place broccoli mixture in blender. Blend until smooth. (This is where I decided I LOVE my Bosch. It took about 20 seconds to make the picture above into smooth broccolie puree.) Set aside.

Melt butter in the pot you cooked the broccoli in. Stir in flour. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is smooth and bubbly, remove from heat. (This is called a roux, it is your secret to making a good sauce, gravy or creamy soup.) Stir in broth. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute.

Stir in broccoli mixture, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Heat just to boiling, stir in whipping cream. Heat just until hot (do not boil or soup may curdle.) Serve with shredded cheese.

Rainbow Cake

I made this cake for Liz and Katie's birthday. I'm not usually a fan of boxed cakes, but this was actually pretty good, and it was impressive looking, and really very easy. I first saw it here.

Rainbow Cake

(for the cake)
2 boxes of white cake mix
food coloring (try Ateco)

(for the frosting)
4 (8 oz) packages of cream cheese
1 cup butter
5-6 cups powdered sugar
1 T vanilla

To make the cake:

Mix up one box of the cake mix, following the directions on the box. Separate the prepared mix into three bowls with roughly 1 cup of cake mix per bowl. Add food coloring (red in one bowl, orange in another, and yellow in the third).

Bake the three cakes in round pans according to the box instructions. Make sure to check the cakes about 10 minutes before they are supposed to be done. With less mix in the pans, they can cook faster.

Repeat with the second box of cake mix and the remaining three colors (green, blue, purple).


To make the frosting:

Mix together softened (room temperature) butter and softened (room temperature) cream cheese until well combined. Add vanilla. Combine. Slowly add in powdered sugar. After the 5th cup, taste the frosting. If you'd like it sweeter, add the 6th cup. If not, leave the 6th cup out.


To assemble cake:

Level the tops of each layer of cooled cake with a large bread knife. Slice into the cakes horizontally so that the centers of the cakes are no longer higher than the edges (something that usually happens to them when they are baked). This is important so that the colors will display evenly when the completed cake is cut. Your rainbow will appear warped and not even unless you level the tops of each cake first.

Begin assembly with the purple layer. Set the purple layer on your cake stand or plate. Add enough frosting to cover the layer with enough to spill over the edges (about 1/2 to 1 cup of frosting). Run the flat, smooth side of a large knife around the cake to smooth out the frosting.

Add the blue layer of cake on top of the frosted purple one. Put more frosting in the middle and spread again with the flat, smooth side of a large knife so that the frosting covers the layer and falls out over the edges. Run your knife around the outside edge of the cake as well, to smooth out the sides.

Put the cake into the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or the freezer for 1 hour.

Repeat with green layer and then yellow layer.

Put the cake into the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or the freezer for 1 hour.

Repeat with orange layer and finally with red layer.

Freezing between each two rounds of layers is recommended. The cake can get really heavy by the time you are adding the 4th, 5th and 6th layers. If it is somewhat frozen at this point, the cake will not get smooshed or crushed. Additionally, it is much easier to frost the cake when it is relatively solid, not wobbling all over the place.

It really is quite easy to make. I was intimidated by the instructions, and worried that the cake was going to collapse or crush itself, but I followed the directions exactly, and it was perfect. It came out beautiful, and it tasted good.