Radish Dip

This is a recipe a coworker of mine got me absolutely addicted to. It is great for parties or potlucks.
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Ingredients Needed:
1 8 oz. cream cheese
¼ cup butter (softened)
¼ tsp. celery salt
¼ tsp. Worchestershire sauce
1 cup chopped radishes
¼ cup chopped green onion

1. Mix top 4 ingredients together using a mixer.
2. Combine radishes and onion into cream cheese mixture.
3. Serve with Wheatsworth crackers.

ENJOY!!

Merry CHRISTmas everyone!

Jesus is the reason for the season!

Hope you all enjoy this wonderful time of the year with your friends and family.

May God bless you this holiday season.

Green Bean Casserole

I know this recipe isn't very original, it is a family favorite however during the holidays and I don't completely follow the directions, so I sort of made it my own.
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Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Ingredients Needed:
2 cans green beans
¼ cup milk
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can French’s fried onions
salt & pepper

1. Mix green beans, milk, and soup together.
2. Salt and pepper to taste.
3. Mix in ½ cup of French’s fried onions.
4. Bake for 30 minutes.
5. Remove from oven, top with remaining French’s fried onions.
6. Bake another 5-10 minutes until onions start to brown.
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Variations:

You can use frozen green beans, just keep the amounts the same. You can use french style or regular cut green beans, it really does not matter. You should use French's fried onions, I find that anyone else's don't have the same effect. I typically use the big can cause I love them so much, but the small can does the job as well.

ENJOY!!

Cheesy Taters

This is my Grama Connie's recipe, though I have seen others with similar ingredients, hers still kicks everyone else to the ground! And I still can't completely replicate the recipe to the way she makes them, but they are still good no matter what! We make this at all of our family gatherings, especially during the holidays.
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Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Ingredients needed:
1 package southern style potatoes
8 ounces sour cream
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup cubed Velveeta cheese
½ stick butter

1. Spray a cake pan with PAM.
2. Add one package southern style potatoes.
3. Stir the sour cream and cream of chicken soup together and add on top.
4. Cut up Velveeta cheese into little cubes, need about one cup, but can put on more or less according to your tastes.
5. Melt a half stick of butter and pour over top of entire dish.
6. Bake for one hour.

ENJOY!!

Swedish Meatballs

This meatball recipe is from the Betty Crocker cookbook. The gravy is from online, tweaked just a bit to meet my tastes. Laurie and I made these for Cody's graduation and Kersten's birthday party and they are now a family favorite! We usually triple the batch for the ten of us. Yum!
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Swedish Meatballs
Ingredients Needed:
1 pounds ground beef
½ cup bread crumbs
¼ cup half and half
2 tbsp chopped onion
1 tsp salt
1 egg
1 tsp butter
1 tsp olive oil

1. Mix all ingredients together in bowl except butter and olive oil.
2. Roll mixture into one and a half inch balls.
3. Fry in butter and olive oil until browned.
4. Add to Swedish Meatball Gravy, cook in slow cooker for at least four hours.
5. Serve by themselves or over potatoes, rice or noodles.
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Swedish Meatball Gravy
Ingredients needed:
2 cups beef stock
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 cup heavy cream
¼ cup cold water
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

1. Pour beef broth into pan, heat to boiling.
2. In a gravy shaker, mix the flour with water until smooth.
3. Whisk flour mixture into warm gravy, and let simmer, whisking constantly to prevent lumps, until thickened slightly, about 3-5 minutes.
4. Add the cream and season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. Pour over meatballs in slow cooker and let simmer.

ENJOY!!

Butter Pecan Ice Cream

This is another one of our favorite ice cream recipes. This one is courtesy of the Food Network's Paula Deen. I am not normally a pecan person, but this was so yummy, I enjoyed them in an ice cream format!
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Ingredients Needed:
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/3 cup chopped pecans
1 (13-ounce) can evaporated milk
1 (3 3/4-ounce) package instant French vanilla pudding mix
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups whole milk

1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan.
2. Add pecans and cook over low heat until they are lightly browned, about 3 minutes.
3. Place on a paper towel to drain and cool.
4. In an 8-cup measuring cup with a spout, combine the remaining ingredients.
5. Whisk until the sugar is dissolved.
6. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturers' instructions.
7. Add the pecans 10 minutes into the freezing.
8. Once ice cream is as firm as it will get, pour into freezer safe container and freeze for at least 24 hours before serving.

ENJOY!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hope everyone enjoys the holiday with friends and family!

Be blessed!

Pumpkin Bars

Since its that time of year for pumpkin to be in style, I thought I'd post a pumpkin recipe I can tolerate. I do not like pumpkin pie or anything pumpkin flavored, except these bars. Yum!
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Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Ingredients needed:
1 spice cake mix
3 eggs
1 can Libby’s Pumpkin
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup water
1 container prepared cream cheese or vanilla frosting

1. Blend cake mix, pumpkin, eggs, oil and water in large mixing bowl until moistened.
2. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.
3. Pour batter onto greased deep baking sheet.
4. Bake for 18 to 23 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
5. Allow to cool. Spread frosting on top.

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Variations:
This recipe was originally written to be done as cupcakes, but I make them into bars and it works beautifully without the hassle of individualness.

ENJOY!!

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

This is a family recipe from as far back as I can remember. We ALWAYS have these cookies during the holidays. Most people I know that make these do not make them the way we do, they always have hard, crunchy cookies. These are soft and oh so yummy!!
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Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Ingredients needed:
1 yellow cake mix
1 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup water
2 eggs
1 pkg. Hershey Kisses

1. Mix cake mix, peanut butter, water, and eggs in medium mixing bowl until fairly smooth mixture.
2. Drop one inch balls of cookie dough onto greased cookie sheet.
3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.
4. Remove from oven and immediately top with a Hershey’s Kiss.
5. Let cool 5 minutes, than remove from pan.

ENJOY!!

Coffee Cake

This is another family recipe that has been around a long time. A staple during the holidays.
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Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Ingredients needed:
Dough:
2 pkg. dry yeast
½ cup warm water
½ cup warm milk
½ cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
½ cup shortening
4 ½ to 5 cups flour

Filling:
Stick of melted butter

1lb finely chopped walnuts
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk

2 cans poppy seed filling

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water, stir in ½ cup milk, sugar, salt, eggs, shortening, and 2 ½ cups of flour. Beat until smooth.
2. Mix in remaining flour until dough is easy to handle.
3. Put dough on floured counter. Knead until smooth and elastic.
4. Place in greased bowl, flip over and cover with towel. Let rise until dough is double in size.
5. Punch dough down, shape, cover and let rise until double again.
6. Make nut filling at this point. In small bowl, mix finely chopped walnuts, sugar and milk. Mixture should be sort of thick, but spreadable. May need to add a little more milk.
7. Split dough into four equal portions. Flour a counter and begin to roll into a circle until dough is about ¼ inch thick.
8. Spread butter on dough with basting brush. Spread poppy or nut filling.
9. Roll up into log and tuck ends in.
10. Place on light colored greased cookie sheet.
11. Cover with towel, let rise until double in size.
12. Place in middle of oven, bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until browned medium on outside. When you touch it, it should bounce back when it is finished and sound hollow.
13. Brush butter on top of loaves promptly after pulling out of oven.

Serve warm or cold! Makes 4 loaves.
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Variations:
You can use whatever you want for filling, the two listed above are the family favorites and we never seem to deviate!

ENJOY!!

Rave Reviews ~ Cream of Potato Soup

So I made a huge pot of this soup at the Peaslee's. Laurie kinda looked at me skeptically when she saw me starting with chicken broth as the base. She wondered how it would be potato soup with chicken broth.

Well, all in all, it turned out really yummy!! All the kids liked it, Lolo liked it too. I must say it wasn't precisely like Outback's potato soup, but it was really close. Since I know I can closely copycat their recipe, I'll be making this more often and avoiding paying $5 for a small bowl of there soup.

As a suggestion, I would cut back on the chicken broth by at least one can. It's not that it did anything to ruin the flavor, but there was more cream than potato. Or you could just add more potatoes I suppose too. I did a double batch and added five pounds of potatoes and we still had more "broth" leftover. You could also cut back on the butter. It was very prominent and while I love butter, I think we could make it slightly healthier if you did exact amounts of flour/butter.

Let me know if you tried the recipe and what you think.

Cream of Potato Soup

This is a recipe I found on the web that is supposed to emulate Outback's potato soup. It comes close! Hope you enjoy as much as I do.
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Ingredients Needed:
2 pounds potatoes, boiled and diced
3 cans chicken broth(16 ounce)
1 medium onion, diced
2 cups water
white sauce(see recipe below)
salt & pepper
bacon crumbles
cheddar cheese
chives

1. Boil potatoes until tender, drain and set aside.
2. In a large kettle, bring chicken broth, water, onion and seasoning to a boil.
3. Slowly stir in white sauce.
4. Add potatoes.
5. Heat until warm, about 10 minutes.
6. Serve garnished with bacon crumbles, cheese and chives.

White Sauce
1 1/2 sticks butter
3/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1. Melt butter in pan.
2. Stir in flour and cook for about two minutes.
3. Add in heavy cream slowly to reduce lumping.

ENJOY!!

Happy Halloween!

For fun, since Halloween is on a Friday this year, I flexed my day at work so I could get to the Peaslee's in time for the babies to go trick or treating. Now, we don't subscribe to most of the Halloween stuff since it is mostly not Christian based, so we kind of do our own thing, but we still let the babies get dressed in furry, cuddly costumes to trick or treat. We are having a little fun party for the big kids at home that includes some scary treats on Saturday. I'll post pictures of the party next week. But here are some recipe ideas for you to try some time:

Creepy Fingers

Yield: 5 dozen

Ingredients Needed:

1 cup Butter, softened

1 cup Icing sugar (powdered sugar)

1 Egg

1 tsp Almond extract

1 tsp Vanilla

2 2/3 cups Flour

1 tsp Baking powder

1 tsp Salt

3/4 cup Almonds, whole blanched

1 Tube red decorator gel(optional, not pictured)

In bowl, beat together butter, sugar, egg, almond extract and vanilla. Beat in flour, baking soda*, and salt. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes. Working with one quarter of the dough at a time and keeping remainder refrigerated, roll heaping teaspoonful of dough into finger shape for each cookie. Press almond firmly into 1 end for nail. Squeeze in centre to create knuckle shape. (Accompanying picture showed long rolled shape with bulge at centre for knuckle; you puff it out rather than squeeze it in.) Using paring knife, make slashes in several places to form knuckle.Place on lightly greased baking sheets; bake in 325F (160C) oven for 20-25 minutes or until pale golden. Let cool for 3 minutes. Lift up almond, squeeze red decorator gel onto nail bed and press almond back in place, so gel oozes out from underneath. You can also make slashes in the finger and fill them with "blood."

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Spooky Sugar Cookies

Ingredients Needed:

2 cups margarine or butter

2 1/4 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

6 cups flour

3/4 tsp salt

4 Tbsp milk (can use water)

Divide dough in half (or sixths). Only add milk or water if the dough is too dry. Chill 1 hour. Roll out half of dough 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 375F/190C for 12 minutes. These can be frosted. Makes about 5-6 dozen standard-sized cookie cutter shapes.

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Royal Icing

This is the traditional recipe that glues gingerbread houses together or makes a hard candy-like surface on cookies or cakes. Makes enough to ice 5-6 dozen sugar cookies.

Ingredients Needed:

16 oz powdered sugar (icing sugar)

3 egg whites

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Beat until peaks firmly hold their shape, and the more you beat it, the firmer it gets. This hardens when exposed to air, but dissolves in water, so keep a moist towel over the bowl while working with it. Use a tight-fitting plastic container to store in the refrigerator for a couple weeks, but the egg whites begin to separate from the sugar any longer than that.

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Awful Arachnids

Take one cup of Royal Icing and tint it black. Using a decorating tube to pipe, pipe Royal Icing into spider shapes on waxed paper. If your hand gets sore from piping spiders, put a toothpick in the piping tube nozzle so the icing doesn't dry and plug the nozzle. Taking breaks is good since the warmer the icing gets, the bigger and sloppier your lines are, so let the icing bag rest back to room temperature, then keep piping away until you get sick of spiders! This usually makes about 3 dozen, or one cookie sheet full. Once the spiders are dry, as long as they stay away from moisture, they will keep indefinitely.

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Edible Eyeballs

Ingredients Needed:

Carrots

Cream Cheese

Black Olives

Slice carrots about an inch thick, dab some cream cheese on top and add a half of a black olive.

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Swamp Water Punch

Ingredients Needed:
1 can ecto cooler
1 quart orange juice with pulp
1 large bottle ginger ale
ice (optional: ice made with things in it like gummy worms)

Chill all ingredients before making. Mix ecto cooler and orange juice together in your punch bowl. Add ginger ale and ice just before serving.

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Haunted Taco Tarts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Ingredients Needed:

1 pound ground hamburger

1 packet taco seasoning

Egg Yolk Paint (recipe follows)

2 packages (15 ounce) refrigerated pie crusts

2 egg white

1 cup chopped tomato

1 cup taco-flavored shredded cheese

Cook hamburger until browned. Add taco seasoning as directed; set aside. Lightly grease baking sheets. Prepare Egg Yolk Paint; set aside. On lightly floured surface, roll 1 pie crust to 14-inch diameter. Using 3-inch Halloween cookie cutters, cut out pairs of desired shapes. Repeat with other pie crusts, rerolling dough if necessary. Place 1/2 of shapes on prepared baking sheets. Brush edges with egg white. Spoon about 1 tablespoon taco mixture onto each shape. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon tomato and 1 teaspoon cheese. Top with remaining matching shapes; press edges to seal. Decorate with Egg Yolk Paint. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.

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Egg Yolk Paint

Ingredients Needed:

4 egg yolks, divided

4 teaspoons water, divided

Red, yellow, blue and green liquid food colorings

Place 1 egg yolk in each of 4 small bowls. Add 1 teaspoon water and a few drops different food coloring to each; beat lightly.

Bacon & Cheddar Dip

This is a recipe from a potluck we had at work. It was so yummy, it was requested she share and she was kind enough to do so.
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Ingredients Needed:
1 pint of sour cream
1 cup shredded cheese
1 pkg of Hidden Valley Ranch Dip
¼ cup bacon bits

1. Mix all ingredients in bowl.
2. Serve with crackers.

ENJOY!!

Tuna Salad

This is a dish my mom has been preparing for years, my Grama Louise makes it too, so I can only presume it is a long standing family dish. I know many others that make this, but none exactly like us and this is my preferred version.
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Ingredients Needed:
1 can of tuna in water, drained
4 stalks of diced celery
1 8 oz. package small shell noodles
3/4-1 cup Kraft Miracle Whip
1/8 tsp. Lawry’s Season salt
1/8 tsp. onion salt
1/8 tsp. pepper

1. Boil water for noodles, cook, and cold rinse them when they are done.
2. Take drained tuna and place in medium sized bowl, mix in pepper, onion salt, and Lawry’s Season salt.
3. Mix in chopped celery.
4. Add in cold rinsed noodles.
5. Stir in Miracle Whip.
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Variations:
I know people who add onion, peas, or cheese. Have also seen egg in it. Some substitute salmon in place of tuna. Most people use mayonnaise and not Miracle Whip, but to me, Miracle Whip rocks.

ENJOY!!

Hamburger Stroganoff

This is a recipe that I sort of made up based off of watching a ton of kitchen shoes and quirking things around until it tasted like I wanted it to. Hope you like it.
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Ingredients Needed:
1 lb. lean Ground beef
1 tsp. Onion salt
¼ tsp. Lawry’s Season salt
½ tsp. Garlic powder
1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 cup sour cream
1 bag Egg Noodles

1. Cook hamburger with spices until done.
2. Add in cream of mushroom soup, let simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Stir in sour cream.
4. Serve over egg noodles.
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Variations:
I substituted hamburger for sliced steak as it tastes just as good and is less expensive. I usually serve this over mashed potatoes, since they are my favorite. You can also serve this over rice.

ENJOY!!

Rave Reviews ~ Chicken Noodle Soup

I made it this weekend at the Peaslee's. We decided to pretend we were at Olive Garden having soup, salad and breadsticks. Well, we didn't have their dressing and we didn't have their Zuppa Tuscana, BUT, it still was yummy.

The kids ate the soup right up, I made a big pot, so we actually did have some leftover which we had the next day in addition to our tomato soup and grilled cheese. I also made a big salad with leafy greens, roma tomatoes and cucumbers. And to complete the trio, Pillsbury garlic breadsticks fresh from the oven. Laurie like the soup alot, the broth was different from how Fred makes his, but that is to be expected as Fred doesn't use any seasoning. He also makes homemade from scratch noodles, which, while delicious, is alot of time and effort. Joey even commented on how much he liked it, although I figured it out on my own after the third bowl was dished up! Kid is growing like a weed and being in football makes him hungry all the time. And then I got a phone call the other night from Fred. He had the last of my chicken noodle soup and called to tell me he loved it. Coming from Fred, this is a compliment because he doesn't use any seasoning and I use all kinds! He was impressed. I smiled.

I love the fall, it is a great time to make soups and stews to warm you up after coming in from outdoors. The temperatures continue to drop around here, in fact, we have had frost on the cars a few times already, so I expect I'll be making soup alot more often.

Dirty Snoballs

This is a recipe I got back in high school from a friend's mom. Super easy, super fun for kids!
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Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Ingredients needed:
1 can of Pillsbury biscuits
1 pkg. Hershey Kisses
½ stick melted butter
½ cup sugar

1. Wrap biscuit around a Hershey Kiss and roll into a ball.
2. Roll in melted butter.
3. Roll in bowl of sugar.
4. Place on cookie sheet and bake for 8-12 minutes.

ENJOY!!

Rave Reviews ~ Pizza Casserole

So a family in our church had a new baby last week and I was asked to make them a meal for Sunday. I love to cook of course, so I said yes.
I called them up and asked them if they wanted me to bring it to church with me or if they wanted it delivered. We discussed a few things and Scott thanked me and said he'd see me on Sunday.
Well, it turns out that Kathy wasn't feeling very well on Sunday, so they didn't come to church, so Scott's brother picked up the food and delivered it.
I got a phone call on Monday from him with another big "Thank You!" and he said that his kids(obviously not the baby) loved it! They ate it very enthusiastically and were happy I included the recipe so Mom could make it again sometime.

Told you my Pizza Casserole was a hit with the kids!

I happened to make a big batch so there would be enough for a meal at Fred & Laurie's and their kids all loved it too.

And there was a secret ingredient! I used whole wheat pasta for the healthy benefit factor and you couldn't even tell once it is covered in red sauce that it was any different from regular semolina pasta, taste, texture or otherwise. SNEAKY huh?

Makes me feel good to get compliments from people I don't cook for on a regular basis!

Chicken Noodle Soup

Now that fall has arrived, I figured I'd post a soup recipe. This is a recipe I made up myself through experimentation trying to emulate the broth that Noodles has, it is as close as I can come since their recipe is a secret! This is also one of those recipes that I typically don't measure, I just throw in a dash of this and a handful of that, so, feel free to experiment yourself!
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Ingredients needed:
1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced
3 small carrots, thinly sliced
2 stalks celery, thinly diced
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 sprigs flat-leaf parsley
8 cups chicken broth, homemade or low-sodium canned
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/3 pound egg noodles (preferably wide ones)
1 cup cubed cooked chicken (meat from about 1 breast)
1 tablespoon whole flat-leaf parsley leaves, for garnish

1. Put the onion, carrots, celery, thyme, parsley, chicken broth, and water in a medium pot.
2. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and bring to a simmer over medium high heat.
3. Simmer until the vegetables are almost tender, about 10 minutes.
4. Add the noodles and cook until tender, 5 to 8 minutes (depending upon the size of the noodles).

5. Add the chicken, warm through, and then adjust the seasoning, if necessary, with salt and pepper.
6. Serve garnished with parsley.
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Variations:
If you don't have fresh herbs, dried will work. I also usually add potatoes(most people wouldn't), but I love spuds and it tastes good to me! You can also use dark meat, I just prefer white meat. You could also substitute turkey in place of the chicken. Feel free to experiment with herbs.

ENJOY!!

Peanut Butter Ice Cream

This is a recipe I stumbled onto via the web. It is one of our favorites! I bought an ice cream maker at the beginning of summer and we have really enjoyed trying different recipes. The difference between homemade and store bought is amazing. Not sure I'll ever buy ice cream at the store again!
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Ingredients Needed:
1 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup whole milk
1 - 1/3 cups heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Combine the peanut butter and sugar until smooth.
2. Add the milk. Blend on low speed until smooth and the sugar is dissolved.
3. Stir in the heavy cream and the vanilla.
4. Place in your ice cream maker and let it run until it's as thick as it's going to get, then scrape it into a container.
If you let it sit in a freezer overnight, it'll harden up and have the standard ice cream consistency you've come to know and love.
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Variations:
We used 1% milk and it turned out just fine, so any kind of milk should work. You can add a little more vanilla if you wish. We used smooth peanut butter, but chunky works too.
Also, you can add mix-ins or toppings of your taste, we use mini chocolate chips, mini Reeces peanut butter cups and butterscotch chips. You could also use hot fudge.

ENJOY!!

Pizza Sauce

I know, I know, I am on a pizza kick these days, but I figured you would need my pizza sauce recipe in order to make the pizza have the real effect it needs. This is a recipe my mother used that I quirked to fit my tastes.
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Ingredients needed:
8 ounce can tomato sauce
2 tsp. Italian seasoning
1/8 tsp. Onion salt
1 tbsp. olive oil

1. In medium mixing bowl, add one 8 ounce can of tomato sauce.
2. Add remaining seasonings as directed.
3. Stir all together and put directly on dough.

This is enough for one pizza that you will need the above ingredients. So if you are making more than one, just times the ingredients by that number.

ENJOY!!!

Pizza Dough

This is a recipe that my family has used ever since I can remember. I have no idea of where it originated, but it is delicious. I prefer homemade pizza to any you can buy from a chain any day!
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Heat oven to 425 degrees.

Ingredients needed:
5 cups white/wheat flour
2 tsp. salt
2 cups lukewarm water
1 pkg. yeast

1. In large mixing bowl, mix five cups of flour with 2 tsp. salt.
2. In separate bowl, mix two cups warm water and 1 pkg. yeast.
3. Add water to flour mixture, mix together with hands until sticky.
4. Grease large bowl that won’t melt and place dough inside.
5. Set on top of preheated oven, let rise for about an hour.
6. Roll dough out to fit pan. Spread on pan lined with cornmeal.

Makes 2 to 3 large pizzas depending on how thick you like your crust. Add desired toppings and bake until cheese melts.
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Variations:
You can use all wheat or all white flour, but I grew up using half of each and that is the way I like it best.

ENJOY!!

Pizza Casserole

This is a recipe a girl at work gave me. She made it for a potluck we had once and it was a hit! I have made this on countless occasions and everyone, especially the kids, love it.
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Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Ingredients Needed:
2 lbs. ground beef/italian sausage
2 Tbsp. dry onion soup mix
12 oz. angel hair spaghetti (in thirds)
onion salt to taste
1 20 oz. jar Prego Garlic with Olives sauce
1 15 oz. can stewed tomatoes
2-2½ cups shredded mild cheddar cheese
4 oz. sliced pepperoni

1. Brown ground beef, add onion salt to taste; add onion soup mix; drain off fat.
2. Combine with cooked spaghetti, spaghetti sauce, and stewed tomatoes.
3. Spread evenly in lightly buttered (or Pam) 9 x 13 inch glass pan.
4. Cover with foil and bake 30-45 minutes.
5. Remove from over and layer pepperoni pieces about ½ inch apart over entire top.
6. Sprinkle with shredded cheese over all.
7. Bake uncovered 15 minutes.
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Variations:
I usually make my own pasta sauce, I like it better than out of a jar, but the jar is obviously the quick and easy version. When I do make my own, I just add a can of sliced olives to the mixture.
You can also use other pastas like macaroni or bow ties or whatever you have on hand.

Menu suggestion: Pizza casserole, Italian bread, corn and tossed salad.

This is something that can easily be made in advance and thrown in the fridge for a few days or you can freeze it for up to three months if covered properly.

ENJOY!!

Taco Dip

This is a recipe that I made up based on having other peoples' taco dips. I never had the ingredient list, so I just experimented until I got it to taste the way I like. I could totally eat the whole pan of dip myself, but, I only make this when I know I will be able to share so I don't have to worry about it. Leftovers are NEVER a problem!!
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Ingredients Needed:
2 8 oz. cream cheese
4 oz. sour cream
1/4 cup milk
2 pkg. taco seasoning(any brand)
Shredded lettuce
Diced tomatoes
Shredded cheddar cheese
Black olives
Tortilla Chips/Doritos

1. Mix first four ingredients in a bowl by hand or with beater(or in a Kitchenaid mixer). May need to add more milk to make the dip creamy enough to scoop.
2. Spread in 9x13 cake pan.
3. Top off with other ingredients to your liking.
4. Serve with tortilla chips or Doritos.
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Variations:
You can use reduced fat or fat free cream cheese.
Same with the sour cream.
I prefer cheddar cheese, but you can use colby or monterey jack or mix it up. You can also use reduced fat or fat free cheeses, but my personal preference is for all the fat in the cheese!
As for the chips, you can use whatever you like. I prefer Tostitos bite sized or cheese Doritos, but you can use any flavor or brand.
Any milk is fine, although once again, I haven't tested this with soy, so if you do that, let me know how it came out.

And finally, you can have onions or beans in it as well, though I really prefer not to.

ENJOY!!

Dream Cake

This is a combination family/church recipe that has been around for a long time. It is probably my most favorite dessert right next to DQ ice cream cake!!
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Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Ingredients needed:
1 stick margarine or butter
1 cup flour
1 cup finely chopped walnuts
2 boxes chocolate pudding
2 boxes vanilla pudding
4 cups milk
16 ounces Cool Whip
8 ounces cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
sprinkles

Crust
1. Melt 1 stick of margarine, add to it 1 cup of flour, and 1 cup finely chopped walnuts.
2. Mix together and press into greased 9x13 cake pan. Bake for 20 minutes.

1st Layer
1. Mix 8 ounces softened cream cheese with 1 cup powdered sugar and 8 ounces of cool whip.
2. Mix all together and spread over cooled crust, Refrigerate for ½ hour.

2nd Layer
1. Mix 2 boxes chocolate pudding with 2 cups milk.
2. Spread over 1st layer. Refrigerate ½ hour.

3rd Layer
1. Mix 2 boxes vanilla pudding with 2 cups milk.
2. Spread over 2nd layer. Refrigerate ½ hour.

4th Layer
1. Spread remaining 8 ounces cool whip over top.
2. Sprinkle with your favorite candies, sprinkles or shaved chocolate.

Serve chilled and keep refrigerated until gone.
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Variations:
You could use any flavor pudding you would like, I like to do chocolate and banana cream together for instance, so be creative and choose puddings you like.
Also, for those who are diabetic, you can buy the sugar free puddings or cool whip and it turns out just fine. Do not however, substitute the powdered sugar for anything that is reduced calorie or fake sugar related(eg. Splenda), it does not turn out.
Cream cheese can be reduced fat or fat free as well if you want to lower the calorie content.
You could also use pecans for the crust if that is your preferred nut.
You can use any kind of milk. Have not tested a soy version, so if you experiment sometime, let me know how it comes out.

ENJOY!!

The Start

Ok, so the site is up, I'll try to post a recipe each week rotating between main dishes, side dishes, appetizers, soups and desserts.

If there is something in particular you happen to be wanting, but don't see posted, please just send me a note and I'll work it into the rotation.

Happy Eating!!