Maraschino Cherry Cookies

I got this recipe from a guy I knew in college. It is one of our favorites around the holidays

1 1/2 c. shortening
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs
3 1/2 c. flour
1 c. maraschino cherries (drained and chopped)
1 tsp. salt
1 1/4 tsp. almond flavoring
2 tsp. baking soda
1 c. coconut
Cream shortening and sugar. Add salt, almond flavoring and eggs. Beat well.Add dry ingredients. Mix well.Blend in cherries and coconut.Drop by spoonfuls on cookie sheet.Bake at 375 for 8 minutes

Sweet Potato Casserole

Taco Soup

I love making this soup because I always seem to have the ingredients on hand in my food storage. It is great to make when unexpected people show up because it is fast, easy, and you can make it for large groups really easy. If more people show up, just add a couple more cans of something.

1 lb. ground beef
1 can pinto beans
1 can black beans
1 can kidney beans
1 can whole kernel corn
2 cans crushed tomatoes
1 can water
1 envelope taco seasoning mix
Fritos
shredded cheddar cheese

Brown the ground beef and drain. Add taco seasoning mix and prepare according to package instructions. Open all the beans and rinse and drain. Add beans, corn and crushed tomatoes to the ground beef mixture. Fill one of the empty cans with water and add that to the soup. Heat through. Serve topped with shredded cheese, Fritos or corn chips and sour cream if desired.

If you don't have all of those kinds of beans, you can do 3 cans of one of them or mix and match in any way you like. I've even had it with Garbanzo beans too.

Mandarin Chicken and Fried Rice

This chicken is like the kind you get at Panda Express

MANDARIN CHICKEN

boneless skinless chicken thighs
2/3 c sugar
1/4 c. soy sauce
1 T lemon juice
1 tsp canola oil
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp. garlic
1/4 c. water
4 tsp flour

Put sugar, soy sauce, lemon juice, oil, garlic and ginger in a saucepan and stir together. Place on stove on low heat. In a separate bowl, mix flour with water. When the sauce warms up, add flour mixture a little at a time to thicken.

Grill the chicken on your BBQer until done. Slice into bitesize pieces and drizzle with sauce until all pieces are covered. Serve immediately with extra sauce on the side in case someone wants more. I figure 2-3 thighs per person. This sauce is enough for 15-20 thighs and it keeps for quite a while in the fridge too. When I cut my chicken up, I use a fork and knife holding the chicken down with the fork and slicing through the tines with the knife to cut into strips.


HAM FRIED RICE

3-4 c. prepared rice (I use regular or instant, my kids like the instant better but I like the real rice better)
diced ham
1-2 eggs
frozen peas
2-3 green onions , diced
soy sauce
butter

Melt 1 T butter in skillet or wok. Brown onions and ham in the butter. Mix the eggs in a bowl and cook in the skillet or wok (scramble) along with the peas. Take onions, peas, ham and eggs out of pan. Melt 1/4-1/2 c. butter in the pan. Add rice and cook over high heat so that it fries the rice. After it is fried, add the rest of the ingredients back in and stir together. Warm through and add 1-2 T soy sauce. Serve with soy sauce in case anyone likes to add more.

Cornbread Muffins

I hate dry crumbly corn bread with a passion! When I found this recipe, I fell in love with cornbread again. They are moist and not crumbly and they are delicious!

Corn Muffins

1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. cornmeal
3 T sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 c. sour cream

Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl. In another bowl beat egg and sour cream; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fill greased muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 400 for 15-18 minutes. Makes 8-10 muffins

Homemade Pizza

It has been a standing tradition at our house on Friday nights for the last few years to have pizza for dinner. It started because that was date night for Sean and I so it was easy for the boys to just do frozen pizza. Then we were unemployed and poor, so we started having our date for lunch because the lunch menu is cheaper than the dinner menu and we also started making pizza from scratch to save money also. My nephew Tyler doesn't like pizza, but he thinks that Aunt Lori's pizza is ok, so Tyler, this recipe is for you!

Crust (makes two 12 pizzas)
2 T. rapid yeast
1 1/4 c. warm water
1 T. sugar
2 T. olive oil
1 tsp. salt
3 1/4 c. flour
1/2 tsp. garlic powder


Put 1/4 c. warm water in large mixing bowl. Sprinkle yeast on top and then sprinkle with the sugar. Let sit until it is foamy. Add the rest of the water (1c.), olive oil, salt, and garlic powder. Stir just a little to mix. Add all of the flour and knead by hand until mixed well. If it is sticking to your hands, add a little more flour. Cover and let rise until double. I use a Tupperware bowl and let it rise until the lid pops off.

Sprinkle a little flour on your counter. Split dough into 2 equal pieces. Roll out into a 12" circle and place on pizza pan sprayed with non-stick cooking oil. Poke holes in dough with a fork.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put dough into oven and cook for 5 minutes. Take out and spread pizza sauce (I like the Contadina pizza sauce you can buy in a can) on top followed by grated cheese and any other toppings you wish. Put back in oven and bake for an additional 15 minutes or until crust starts to brown and cheese is melted.

Chicken Alfredo Pizza
Make dough according to directions above.
Cut 2 chicken breasts into bite size pieces and brown in olive oil sprinkled with garlic powder.
Once you cook the dough for the 5 minutes, spread with alfredo sauce, sprinkle with cheese, spread chicken around the top and sprinkle with a little more cheese. Bake. YUMMY!

Pancakes from Scratch

These are so yummy! I can't eat pancakes from a mix anymore. The recipe calls for Buttermilk, but you can use regular milk if you want. BUTTERMILK makes them so much better though! I also sometimes mix in fresh or frozen blueberries when I want to give Trevin a treat because he loves them with blueberries.

Pancakes

1 1/2 c. buttermilk
3 eggs
1/3 c. sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baing soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 T. canola oil (or vegetable oil)
1 3/4 c. flour

I put all the ingredients in my blender and mix up then you can just pour it out on your griddle easily.

Heidi, I doubled this when you guys were here.

Pumpkin Cookies

I can never find this recipe when I need it and I should be able to remember it since it is so easy, but I always second guess myself wondering if there is anything else that needs added, so I'm adding the recipe here so I don't have to search for it every time. I always think it needs eggs or something added and it doesn't. I made these for our YM/YW activity treats last night and they were a hit!

Pumpkin Cookies

1 can pumpkin (29 oz)

3 spice cake mixes

2 bags chocolate chips (you can just put 1 bag in if you want but we like lots of chocolate chips)

Mix pumpkin and cake mix with mixer until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop on cookie sheets sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Cool. I piped on some cream cheese frosting for these and it made them so much yummier!

Makes 8 dozen or so.

Banana Cream Layered Dessert

This is such a yummy and quick dessert to make. I usually make it in a 9x13 cake pan but you make individual ones like in the photo.

• 1 pkg cream cheese
• 1 T. vanilla
• 1 can sweet & condensed milk
• 12 oz. whipped cream (kool whip is great)
• 3 c. milk
• 1 lg pkg vanilla pudding
• 1 box vanilla wafer cookies
• 5-6 banana

Mix softened cream cheese, vanilla, sweet & condensed milk, 1/2 of the whipped cream, 3 c. milk and vanilla pudding in a large mixing bowl. Slice bananas. In a 9x13 cake pan, put one layer of sliced bananas, repeat this step then add the remaining whipped cream and crumble the remaining cookies on top.

Ice Cream in a bag

We did this the other night for Family Home Evening and to also fill one of Derick's class requirements. I think it turned out pretty good.

Recipe:
You will need two seperate bags for each serving, one for the salt and ice and one for the ingredients.

Ice cream mix:

• 2 T. Sugar (For Kirk, Derick and I we used Splenda and for some reason the ones with the splenda set up quicker than the regular sugar.)
• 1 cup half & half
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla

In a seperate bag put 3/4 cup rock salt and some ice. Make sure that your bags are zipped really good and put the ice cream mixture into the salt and ice mixture. Then you just flip your bag around and around until the ice cream mixture is how you like it, anywhere from 10-15 minutes. Wipe off the ice cream bag and then squeeze into a bowl or just eat out of the bag.

Chicken bow-tie pasta salad

This is one of our favorite salads at our house.
Ingredients:

• 1 box bow tie pasta cooked until tender
• 1 can crushed pineapple
• 2 cans cooked chicken or 2-3 cooked & shredded chicken breast
• salt and pepper to taste
• grapes
• cashews

Dressing:

• 1 bottle coleslaw dressing or homemade coleslaw dressing
  
• 1 c. mayo.

Combine the pasta, pineapple, chicken, salt & pepper, grapes and dressing in a large bowl. Add cashews as you like on your individual servings. Enjoy.

Bernies Enchiladas

Yummy Enchiladas!

This is the easiest enchilada casserole that I've ever made. I got this recipe from a friend named Bernie that I worked with. Bernie won several bar-b-que cook offs in Texas and many of her recipe's are featured at the Texas Roadhouse Restaurant's..... The best part with this recipe is it's flexibility - I like to change it up by adding black beans to my layers so enjoy and try experimenting.

1 LB of Hamburger (or shredded chicken)

1- Medium Onion

1/2 of a Green Pepper

1 - Package of Chile Flavored Doritos

1-2 LBS of Grated cheddar cheese

1 - Small can chili peppers diced

1- Small can of diced black olives

1- Can Cream of Mushroom Soup

1- Cup Chicken Broth

Saute onion, green peppers and chopped chili peppers in butter. Crumble and fry out hamburger (if you substitute shredded chicken it should be cooked first)
Combine soup and chicken broth together and set aside.

Assemble ingredients in layers. Bottom layer of crushed Doritos, next layer hamburger , sauteed onions and cheese and repeat.

Pour soup mixture over top of layers and add additional cheese to top it off

Bake in a 9x12 dish at 325 degrees for 30 minutes. - Delicious!!

Non-Cooked Cheesecake

I got this recipe from Anne Gockley, one of my friends. It is a favorite and is really quick and easy to make. Everyone always raves over it.

1 prepared graham cracker crust (buy one or make your own)
8 oz cream cheese, softened (I've used the fat free kind and it works fine)
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp vanilla
8 oz Cool Whip

Beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth; blend in vanilla. Stir in Cool Whip and pour into crust. Chill for at least 4 hours.

You must chill for 4 hours, if you only chill for 2 or 3 hours, the sugar will still taste grainy. It takes that long to fully dissolve.

Top with your choice of toppings, canned pie filling works great. I love it with fresh strawberries in strawberry glaze or fresh peaches in peach glaze that you can buy usually in the produce section. My boys love it drizzled with chocolate syrup ice cream topping.

Great for summertime.

Styrofoam

Sounds appetizing doesn't it? That is what my kids call it, but the recipe I got from my friend actually calls it Corn Puff Treats. This is one of our favorite camping snacks and I take it occasionally to big parties because everyone always loves it. It takes quite a while to cool though, so be sure to make it plenty of time in advance.

1 1/2 c. butter

1 1/2 c. sugar

3/4 c. Karo Syrup, light

1 1/2 T water

1 bag of Corn Puffs

In a medium saucepan, bring the first 4 ingedients to a boil stirring constantly. Boil for 3-4 minutes. Pour a large bag of Corn Puffs into a large bowl. Pour cooked mixture over and stir well to coat cereal. Let cool. Break up if needed. Yummy!

I tried to Google a picture of the bag you need to look for but didn't find anything online. They are not in all stores and sometimes they are by the cereal but most often I find them with the chips. The bag is large like the big cereal you buy in a bag, but I'm not sure how many ounces are in it. I'll look next time I'm at the store and fix my post. The bag is red and yellow I think.

Five Minute Chocolate Mug Cake

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
A small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug
Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again. Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.EAT! (this can serve 2 if you want to feel slightly more virtuous).
And why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world ?
Because now we are all only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake at any time of the day or night

Grandma Buss' Breakfast Cake

George Evers, Grandma Buss,
Grandma Evers and
Little Bob and Ron Evers abt 1946-1947

According to Cousin Charles Buss, Grandma Buss would always have this nice hot breakfast cake baked and ready for hungry farm boys to fill their tummies with. It is a favorite of his - it is good
quick and easy.

Ingredients:

(1) cup sugar (1/2) cup margarine
(1) teaspoon vanilla flavoring (2) large eggs
(1-1/4) cups flour (1/4) teaspoon baking powder
(1/2) cup milk (1) teaspoon cinnamon
(1/4) teaspoon salt

Directions:
Cream together the margarine, sugar, eggs, vanilla and cinnamon
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt and slowly add to creamed mixture along with the milk
Bake in an 8x8 (greased and floured) pan at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes or until done - Serve Warm