Bubble Up Pizza . . .

I have seen this several places around the web, so I decided to try it. It was a winner!

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2 cans of flaky biscuits - cut biscuits into quarters

Toss into a large bowl and add a can of pizza sauce, pepperoni, sausage, green olives, mushrooms (or any toppings of your choice) and stir together.

Dump into a glass casserole dish. Top with 2 cups of mozzarella cheese.

Bake for 25-30 minutes



I think there could be so many variations of this. I thought about doing chicken and fettucine sauce with some garlic and mushrooms. My hubby wants to try a Hawaiian pizza version. I also think it could be good with eggs, sausage and bacon.

Roasted Chick Peas . . .

I saw this over on Aiming Low and decided to give it a shot. They were pretty good!

I rinsed my chick peas (garbanzos) in my colander. I used 2 cans. Then put them on a paper towel to dry a bit. I put the in a bowl with a bit of olive oil, about 3 tablespoons. I sprinkled with cayenne pepper, salt, garlic, and black pepper. I spread them on a cookie sheet and baked them for 50-60 minutes. I stirred them three times over the cooking time to keep them pretty uniformly roasted.

They are yummy! They kind of remind me of corn-nuts, but not so hard.

Sour Cream Enchiladas

I decided today was the day to make sour cream enchiladas. I searched for a couple of easy recipes and I combined them into a recipe of my own.

2 boneless chicken breasts
white corn tortillas
sour cream
can of green chili enchilada sauce
can of green chilis
shredded mexican blend cheese

Here's what I did. I boiled and shredded a couple chicken breasts. (my favorite way to shred chicken)



I combined almost a full can of green chili enchilada sauce (reserving a bit for the top after they were wrapped), 2 cups of mexican shredded cheese, half a can of green chilis, and about 8 ounces of sour cream.


I heated the corn tortilla shells in the microwave with a wet papertowel in order to soften them up. I spooned in the filling and rolled them up, placing them in a slightly oiled 9x13 glass dish.



I topped these with some left over green chili sauce mixed with a few chilis and a couple spoonfuls of sour cream and finally about another cup of mexican shredded cheese.




I covered the dish with foil and baked them on 350 degree for 40 minutes. Yum!

Grandma Driver's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cream together:

1 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs

Add 1 tsp of baking soda dissolved in 1 Tbsp of water.

Mix in 2 1/4 flour, followed by 12 oz of chocolate chips.

Grease cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees until golden.

Lemon Cream Pasta with Capers

Pasta With Lemon Cream and Capers

4 servings

PASTA

1 tablespoon table salt

2 1/2 cups penne pasta, uncooked

1 teaspoon canola oil

LEMON CREAM SAUCE

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 cup heavy cream

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon chicken base (see note)

1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon zest

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

2 tablespoons capers

For the pasta: In a pot, bring 6 cups water and 1 tablespoon salt to a full boil. Add pasta and cook for about 10 minutes, until al dente. Immediately drain pasta and cool in cold water. Drain water completely. Coat pasta with canola oil to prevent sticking.

For the Lemon Cream Sauce: In a stock pot, make a roux by melting the butter and stirring in the flour. Cook for 5 minutes on medium heat, stirring often to prevent burning.

To the stock pot, add the heavy cream, lemon juice, chicken base, lemon zest, kosher salt and black pepper. Whisk or blend to dissolve the roux. Heat to 200 degrees and simmer 15 minutes, or until thickened. Stir often to prevent burning.

Combine cooked penne with Lemon Cream Sauce and capers. Eat way too much!!!

(Adapted from Souplantation)

Chicken Stuffed Shells . . .

Totally yummy and super easy!

Here's what you'll need:

Three boneless chicken breasts boiled and shredded.
1 can of Cream of Chicken soup
1 1/2 cups of sour cream
1 box of chicken flavored stuffing mix
2 cups of shredded cheese
Box of large pasta shells

Mix together the soup, sour cream, box of stuffing prepare according to box, shredded chicken and 1 cup of the cheese. (I used colby jack)


Stuff mixture into boiled shells and place into a casserole dish.

Spoon over any leftover mixture and top with a cup of cheese (I used mozzarella). Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. I made mine early in the day and cooked later.

Yummy!

Thumbs up from the whole family! Next time I think we will add mushrooms and perhaps some broccoli.

Crockpot Beef and Noodles . . .

Chunk up a chuck steak in the crock pot
Add 2 cans of beef broth
pepper

Cook for 8-10 hours on low

Add a packet of beef gravy mix and stir

Boil a bag of wide egg noodles and drain, add meat and broth.

Serve over mashed potatoes.

Easy Peasy! And super yummy!

Super Easy Crock Pot Beef Stew

Chuck steak cut into about 1 inch cubes
2 bags of frozen stew veggies
1 onion quartered
sliced mushrooms (optional)
1 small can of beef broth
1 T of Worcestershire sauce
1 clove of garlic chopped
salt & pepper to taste

Dump into crock pot, stir and cook on low for 10-12 hours. Mmmmm!

Hot Dog Spaghetti . . .

How fun is this? I saw this on a friend's facebook page today and had to try it out! I knew my kids would love it.


All you need is hot dogs* and spaghetti.

Cut up the dogs and get ready to get your old Kerplunk skills out. (Didn't you just hate sticking all those sticks in the game before you could even start? I did!)


McCartney is my tried and true kitchen assistant. She really liked this project. All you do is stick the uncooked spaghetti through a piece of cut up hot dog. We did 5 spaghetti noodles per piece.

Then you make a silly toothless picture to amuse your mother.


Then you have a plate full for really funny looking things.


Dump them in some boiling water for about 10 minutes.


Then you get this!

The kids really wanted to put ketchup on it, but I couldn't handle the thought. They ate them really well without condiments.



*Don't lecture me about the evils of hot dogs. (I mean come on, I bought the nitrate free ones!) I was raised on hot dogs since my grandfather worked the "weiner machine" as he called it as Eckrich when I was little.

Vegetable Soup . . .

from a facebook friend, Thanks Jody.

One pound of Smoked sausage, cut it into chunks and brown them in a big kettle. (can also use beef chunks)
Add a chopped onion and two 29oz cans of stewed tomatoes.

Add 1 bag each of frozen corn, greenbeans, carrots, and peas. Add 2 cans of chick peas and 1 large can of V8 juice and 1 large can of beef broth.

Last, peel and chunk up 4 large potatoes.

Bring to a boil, turn it down on low put a lid on it and let it simmer 6 hours or more.

Now you can either do it that way or adjust the amount of items to fit whatever size crockpot you have. Put it all in and let it do it's thing. It is amazing. Even better the next day.

Corn Dog Muffins . . .

2 packages (8 1/2 ounces each) corn bread or muffin mix
2 T brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 can whole kernel corn
5 hot dogs slice (or cocktail weinies)

Combine corn bread mix and brown wugar. Combine eggs and milk and then stir into dry ingredients. Stir in kernel corn and hot dogs. (Batter will seem thin)

Fill paper muffin cups 3/4 full.

Bake at 400° for 14-18 minutes or until golden brown

The Coop Keeper's Bread . . .

Jayme runs a fabulous blog here. I made her bread for the first time last week. Since then, I have made it four more times! It rocks, and I hate to bake. I asked before I pretty much stole her entire post . . .

It's a recipe that I adapted from the Mother Earth News magazine for No Knead Bread. I don't follow it exactly as they do, and my results are fantastic. I now have about six ziploc bags made up with the 'bread mix' and all I have to do is add water and I'm done.

The recipe:

3 cups of flour

1 1/2 teaspoons of salt

1/4 teaspoon of yeast

1 1/2 cups warm water

Mix the yeast and water in a large bowl and set aside. Mix the flour and salt together. Add to the water. Stir it around until it forms a shaggy ball. Cover it with plastic wrap tightly. Let it sit for 10, preferably 18 hours, at room temperature.

Now comes the fun part....punch the dough down (it will be VERY wet) and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Take a few more handfuls of flour and mix it into the dough, making it just where you can get ahold of it and it feels sorta like a water balloon. It will be a very soft, loose dough. I like to rub flour all over it at this point and slash it a couple of times on the top. Sit it on top of a hunk of parchment paper and cover it loosely with plastic wrap and let it sit for an hour or so.

Heat your oven to 500. Put your dutch oven in the oven while it's preheating.

Don't let the following step freak you out. After the oven is preheated, you have to lift that bread with the parchment paper and put it in the pot. I've never successfully done it without the bread deflating. It doesn't seem to matter!

Lower the oven temp to 425.

Cover the pot, and bake for 30 minutes.

Uncover, and bake about another 20 minutes, or until your bread looks brown and sounds hollow when tapped.

Try to let it cool for an hour before you cut it. Try hard.

Jayme also bakes bread in cans . . . check her out here.

Pretzel Salad . . .

1 cup crushed pretzels

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter melted

Combine above & line a baking dish. Something the size of an 8x8 square dish.

Reserve some for the top.

Cream together:

1 cup sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

3oz. Pkg. Phila. Cream cheese

Mix together:

1 Box lemon Jello

1/4 cup boiling water

Whip:

1 pt. whipping cream

(or 1/2 pt. whipping cream and 1 pkg. LuckyWhip or

2 pkg. LuckyWhip)

Add whipped cream to lemon Jello mixture. Then fold in cream cheese mixture.

Pour into lined dish. Sprinkle remaining crumbs on top.

Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving.

When doubling this recipe I use an 8oz. pkg. of cream cheese.

I then increase the sugar from 2 cups to 2 ½ cups.

Increase the vanilla from 4 tsp. to 2 Tab.

Buffalo Chicken Dip . . .

1 8 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
1/2 ranch dressing
1/2 Hot Sauce
2 cans (9.75 oz) shredded chicken

Soften cream cheese and stir in a pyrex dish with other ingredients. Heat in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or until dip is warm and bubbly. I mixed mine together the night before in a bowl and sat in fridge until the next morning when I heated it and transferred it to a mini crockpot to keep warm for the party.

Sausage Muffins . . .

These were made by my sister in law Kari. I have no idea what they are called, but I like them. You use a muffin pan thus I called them sausage muffins!

The inside mixture is:
pound of sausage (she added some pepper, garlic etc to the sausage while cooking)
3/4 cup of ranch dressing
3/4 cup of cheddar
1/2 a green pepper diced

Cook the sausage and drain WELL. Toss in other ingredients when done. She said she can do this the night before and put it all in a ziplock bag in the fridge waiting to fill the shell.

The shells are simply store bought wonton wrappers.

She places the wonton in a muffin pan and spoons in the filling mixture. Cook in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes.


Mmmmm!

Cake Pops . . .

Make a cake per mix instructions. I made a basic chocolate cake. Make sure you let it cool, completely! I cut mine in chunks and put it in the fridge for an hour or so.

Make Cream Cheese frosting. I made mine with this basic recipe:
1 8oz cream cheese (softened)
3 cups powdered sugar
1 t vanilla
3/4 stick of butter
1 T milk (or cream if you're feeling risky)
mix with hand mixer until smooth
Crumble your cooled cake. Add frosting until it is the consistency of playdoh. I used the universal measurement of a "glump". (Probably a cup or so.)



Roll cake with your hands to form smallish balls. Put them on a cookie sheet and put in the freezer.


Melt candy melts or almond bark in a mug per package instructions. Dip cake balls that have been put on a sucker stick. Roll until excess chocolate drips off, sprinkle before chocolate cools.



I stuck my pops in floral foam that I shoved in a basket. (I left it wrapped in the plastic so the foam wouldn't flake and be icky)

Frozen Strawberry Cake . . .

Ingredients:

1 box white cake mix
1 box strawberry-flavored instant gelatin
1 (15-ounce) package frozen strawberries, thawed and pureed
4 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease 2 (9-inch) round cake pans.

In a large bowl, combine cake mix and gelatin. Add about 3/4 of the pureed strawberries, eggs, oil, and water; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Pour into prepared 9x12 pan, and bake for 40 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool completely before icing

Icing

Powdered Sugar
Butter
Remainder or pureed strawberries
Bit of milk


Mmmmmm!

Green Olive dip . . .

Mmmmm! This one will knock your socks off if you like green olives!

2 blocks of philadelphia cream cheese softened
1 cup of mayonnaise
4 T of olive juice

Mix all together with mixer.

Add one small bottle of olives with remaining juice poured off and finely chopped
1/2 cup of finely chopped pecans

This is WONDERFUL with Cracked Pepper and Olive Oil Triscuits.

Tomato Salad . . .

My husband and I planted a garden this summer. We planted way too many tomatoes (is there such a thing?) so I have had to be creative. I invented a Tomato Sald that I LOVE so much!

A while ago at Sam's club they were promo-ing this garlic seasoning with salmon. It is FABULOUS! I simply pan sear the salmon in butter with the seasoning. I have tried it on chicken, not so good. I decided to give it a shot with tomatoes.

I simply cut the grape tomatoes in half, or quarter the romas. We also planted these yellow ones shaped like light bulbs. Then I simply toss them in a little olive oil, Tone's Rosemary and Garlic Seasoning, salt and pepper. Then, I either add grated parmesan or slice string cheese.

I have also added shells and pepperoni which is really good too.

Enjoy!

Greatest tip ever . . .

A week ago I was eating in a local mexican restaurant. I went to dig into my guacamole and the entire scoop was filled with the avocado seed. When I mentioned it to the waitress she kindly offered to get me another serving, and informed me that the cooks do that to stop the guac from browning. I thought hmmm, wonder if that works?

Today I made guacamole. I left two seeds in. (I figured if one works, two works better!) This picture was taken 3 hours after it was made. Look mom no brown!
I have posted my recipe for guacamole before, but here's a refresher. This is what I did today,

4 avocados peeled, seeded and smushed with a fork in bowl
4 garden tomatoes, I prefer roma
5 or 6 shakes of Tabasco
dollop of salsa (more if you don't use fresh tomatoes)
1/4 cup of sour cream (can add a little ranch dressing for a zing)
salt pepper
an avocado seed (or 2)

Mix and put in sealed container in fridge, with pits!