Easter Rolls

I haven't posted in so long, I don't know if it is even worth it. But for Easter I volunteered to take rolls for our family gathering and dinner. After searching the internet, I found a recipe that looked to be what I wanted. They looked good and easy. I love that combination!

I found the recipe on CookingClassy.com. They were very easy, although I made them a little smaller and did 20 per pan rather than 15.

I didn't get a photo, so you will have to go to Cookingclassy.com and see hers.

If you need a good and easy roll recipe, I highly recommend these.

One-Hour Dinner Rolls

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Yield: 15 rolls

Ingredients

• 3 3/4 - 4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 Tbsp rapid rise yeast
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup cool water
• 2/3 cup milk
• 4 Tbsp unsalted butter, diced into 1 Tbsp pieces, plus more for tops
• 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

Directions

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer whisk together 4 cups flour, sugar, yeast and salt.
• To a medium bowl add water, milk and butter and heat in microwave on HIGH power until it reaches 115 degrees on a thermometer, about 1 minute 15 seconds. Stir to partially melt butter (you just want to make sure it's softened through).
• Pour milk mixture into dry mixture in bowl of electric stand mixer along with lemon juice. Set mixer with a hook attachment then set mixer on low speed and gradually increase to medium-low, knead about 3 - 4 minutes until smooth and elastic while adding additional flour as necessary (dough should be lightly sticky but manageable).
• Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and rest 5 minutes. Meanwhile butter a 13 by 9-inch baking dish.
• Drop dough onto a lightly floured surface. Shape into an evenly level square, about 9 by 9-inches. Cut into 16 equal portions (don't have to be exact). Shape dough into 15 balls, while using excess dough from the 16th portion to add to smaller rounds as needed, and place shaped dough portions into prepared baking dish.
• Dampen hands with water and brush tops of dough with the water (just so they don't dry while rising in oven). Transfer to oven, close oven and turn oven off, allow rolls to rise 20 minutes (don't open oven door). Remove from oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees (this should take about 5 minutes, so just allow rolls to rest on counter while oven preheats).
• Bake in preheated oven 14 - 16 minutes until tops are golden brown. Remove from oven and run the top of a stick of butter along tops of rolls just to coat. Serve warm. Store in an airtight container (I recommend rewarming cool rolls in microwave for best results.
• Recipe source: Cooking Classy 

Yummy Breadsticks (Revisited)

This was originally posted in August of 2009 when I started making bread sticks for my kid's swim team dinners. For the last 5 years they have become a staple at these team dinners during swim season and any other school pot luck function. They get eaten so fast that if you are late to the dinner, you don't get any. It took the coach 4 years before he ever had the opportunity to taste them, and that is because I sent a small container specifically for him.


These bread sticks are a favorite at my house, (at at Swim Team dinners, and band potlucks) and they are fairly simple. I have to do a double (or quadruple) batch every time just so no one feels like they didn't get enough. I guess the best thing is when I make these, I have to make less of everything else :-).

The recipe was given to me by a friend, and they are a welcome addition to any Italian meal.

2 Tbsp sugar

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 Tbsp yeast

3 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

6 Tbsp butter or margarine

garlic powder, dried parsley, Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Mix warm water, sugar and yeast in  mixing bowl (I use my Bosch mixer but can be done by hand or in a Kitchen Aid).  Add the flour, and knead for 5-8 minutes or so with the dough hook. The dough is soft, but it shouldn't be sticky, add more flour in small amounts if needed. Knead well between additions. Let rise until double (when I am in a hurry I also just let it rise for 5 to 10 minutes).  

Place butter in 9x13 baking dish and melt in preheated oven, watch carefully so it doesn't burn. Roll into a rectangle on to lightly floured surface. Cut into strips ( I use my pizza cutter and I cut the strips in half to make them shorter, to have "more" bread sticks for everyone to eat.) Twist each strip of dough by folding in half and wrapping around itself. Dip in butter and arrange in the hot baking dish. After all are in the dish, sprinkle on desired toppings. I use garlic powder, and dried parsley all the time, occasionally I add Parmesan cheese, onion powder, and Italian seasoning. 

 Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, or until golden brown on the bottom. 

Starting Again

Ian is now gone to school, and this year he is in an apartment and has to cook for himself. So he is asking for recipes. I had started a cookbook for him at one point, but inadvertently erased the file during some computer repairing. (Lesson learned, and hopefully not to be repeated.)

I am going to start typing up the recipes again, but figured I would begin to post some here. There won't be pictures at this point because I am just entering them and not cooking them. I may add photos later, but maybe not.

I love to make pancakes from scratch. I don't really care for biscuit mix pancakes. And it is so easy to make them from scratch.

Pancakes

2 cups flour (can use all white, or whole wheat, or combination of the two)

1/2 cup sugar (can reduce it to 1/4th cup if desired)

1 teaspoon salt

4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder ( I get aluminum free baking powder, otherwise there is a slight bitter taste in my opinion)

1 1/2 to 2 cups milk

1/4 cup canola oil (or melted butter)

2 eggs

Preheat griddle.
 In a large bowl, Mix the dry ingredients together (can add powdered milk to make 2 cups if you want).  Add milk, and oil and eggs, then stir.  Cook on warm griddle just until bubbles appearing in the center of the pancake don't close, or close slowly. Flip with spatula, and cook until steam stops coming off the pancake.

Syurp

1 cup water 

2 cups sugar 

1 teaspoon maple flavoing

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Bring water to boil. Add stir in sugar until dissolved. Simmer for 3 minutes. Add Maple flavoring.

Easy Tortilla Pizza

It has been so long since I have posted that I don't know that I remember how.

Last night for dinner I decided to make Pizza, but I didn't feel like making dough. So I grabbed the flour tortilllas off the counter and used them.  I really wish I had gotten a picture, but I didn't. I decided to post the "recipe" anyway.

Tortilla Pizza

1 can Tomato Paste
Spices to taste ( I used Italian seasoning, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper)
1 tomato paste can of  Water
Flour Tortillas (at least one per person)
Pizza Toppings. (we used bell peppers, red onion, tomatoes, pepperoni, ham, pineapple, green chile, and cheese)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  If you desire put pizza stone in as you preheat the oven.
Mix tomato paste with water. (Of course you can use your pizza sauce or spaghetti sauce of choice. This is just what I had on hand.)Add spices to taste.  Spread 1 to 2 Tablespoons of sauce on a flour tortilla, add cheese and toppings of choice.  Place pizza on the preheated pizza stone for about 3 to 5 minutes. When cheese is melted and tortilla is crisp around the edges, pull out. Cut with pizza cutter and serve.  

For a extra crispy crust, place pizza directly on oven rack. (Careful to not dump the toppings... I can warn you from experience that they burn well on the bottom of the oven) I used a wire mesh splatter screen as a paddle to slide the pizza's in and out. Also a long spatula works well.  Bake for 3 to 5 minutes.  Take out, cut and serve.

Not a fancy recipe, but quick and easy for everyone to make their own.

Enjoy!

Spice Oatmeal Cookies

I love cake mix cookies. They are fast and easy, and I can throw them together before the kids go to school to put in their lunches.  I usually make chocolate using a devil's food cake mix. That for sure is my favorite. But I have also used yellow cake mix with chocolate chips, or even strawberry cake mix for something different. 

Last Christmas I needed cookies for something, I don't remember what, so I used a spice cake mix.

Here is a picture of the ingredients (minus the chocolate chips because I forgot to put them out for the picture).

You really can't get any easier than this. You mix it all together and bake them. YUM.  I was going to post this a long time ago, but somehow it didn't happen! I guess it is better late than never.

I love easy. You can jazz up your cake mix cookies anyway you want. The possibilities are endless.

Spice Oatmeal Cookies

1 Spice Cake Mix
1/3 c. vegetable oil*
2 eggs
3/4 c. oatmeal - can add more or less depending on how moist the dough is
1 c. chocolate chips

Mix all ingredients together. Can add a little milk or water if it is too dry, but I wouldn't add too much. Bake on a greased cookie sheet for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

*Another thing you can do is to puree some cooked white beans and replace the oil with 1/3 c white bean puree. Then you have cookies with no additional fat, and more protein. It is amazing that you don't taste the beans, but you don't. It just increases the nutritional value of the cookie, and who can't justify eating one extra cookie because there is no fat!

10 Minute Strawberry Refrigerator Jam

This is a recipe I got from my friend Margaret at a Relief Society homemaking meeting a long time ago. I hadn't ever tried it. The other day another friend asked about stawberry jam, and I remembered this recipe. I got some strawberries yesterday and decided I would try the jam before my kids inhaled all the berries.

Oh man! This is good stuff. I like being able to make a small amount.  I really don't want to do a large batch and have to find freezer space, or can them.  So this is perfect. It made just a little more than 1 pint.

Here is a picture of 2 cups of strawberries, hulled, washed and sliced.

The next step is to mash them well. I used my potato masher.  Worked well and the kids fought over who got to help.

Here is a picture of the pectin and sugar. My pectin was a little past the best use by date (only by 5 years) so I wasn't exactly sure it would gel up correctly, but is worked beautifully.

Look are Erin's beautiful hands mixing in the sugar and pectin.  Mix it well and then put in the microwave on high for 4 to 5 minutes.  Watch it!  I took it out at about 4 minutes 10 seconds because it was getting ready to boil over, and who wants to clean out the microwave?

Here is the mixture after cooking the first time. It does get foamy and that is normal. I stirred it, but don't know if that is necessary.  Cook again for 5 minutes on the 6 power setting of your microwave. It was fun watching it cook this time. My kids were all glued to the microwave. At 6 power my microwave cooks for about 10 seconds and then rests for 6 seconds or so. When it would be in the cook phase, the jam would boil and come right to the top of the bowl, and then it would drop as the cook feature turned off. The kids thought this was great to see, each cook cycle it would get closer to the top of the bowl.  I think it ended just perfectly. One more cook cycle and I think it would have overflowed.  Again you might want to watch just in case.

Here is the finished jam in the jars. As you can see it made one full pint jar with just a little more. That is probably a function of how closely you measure the berries. I measured before slicing, so maybe I had a little too many strawberries, but the taste wasn't affected if there were more than 2 cups.

It is runny when it just comes out of the microwave, but it thickened up as it cooled in the refrigerator.   It was good runny too. I had just made bread, and so we enjoyed the partially full jar right away on fresh bread. YUMMY!  I will definitely do this again.  We may even have to try peaches or plums or apricots. I think it would work. I will let you know.

YUM!

Microwave (10 minute) Strawberry Refrigerator Jam 

2 cups (1 pint) Strawberries, washed and hulled

1 1/2 cup Sugar

2 teaspoons powdered fruit pectin

Slice strawberries into a 2 quart bowl. Mash well. Stir in sugar and pectin thoroughly.  Microwave 4-5 minutes on HIGH, or until mixture comes to a full rolling boil.

Reduce setting. Microwave 5 minutes on '6' power setting.  It will thicken as it cools. Pour into glasses, or jars. Cover with plastic wrap (or lid).  Store in refrigerator. For a thicker jam add an extra teaspoon of pectin.   (from the kitchen of Margaret Aragon)

Fun Blog Find

I don't really remember what blog I followed to find this link, but I am glad I did. The authors are all mothers of large families, and this week their blogs focus on how they feed them. Their blogs are Raising Olives, Smockity Frocks, The Common Roomand Life in a Shoe.



I think I can learn a lot from their posts on menu planning, budgeting and cooking. I really liked the post on one of them, I think it was The Common Room, but I couldn't find the direct link, that talked about picky eaters. It is required that they try some of everything offered, even if it is microscopic. Then they can eat more of what they like and who knows their tastes may change. She made a comment that really made me think. She said that being picky is a form of ingratitude for the person who made the food. I never thought of it this way, but I do agree.

Now to apply the great new things I learn (well really the great old things I am being reminded of in some instances).

I hope to post a new recipe soon.

One of their recent posts was on Cooking for a Crowd.  The recipes are great. Follow the link from this blog to the other four to fully benefit form the recipes posted.

Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes

This recipe rocks! A slightly healthier version than what I use. They were loved and I gave this recipe to a lot (and I mean a lot) of people at the baby shower.

Suffed Cherry Tomatoes

2 pt. cherry tomatoes
1 avocado, peeled and diced
1t lemon juice
1/4C mayonnaise
8 cooked bacon slices, crumbled
2 green onions, finely chopped
Salt & pepper to taste

Cut a small slice from the top of each tomato; scoop out pulp with a small spoon or melon baller, and discard pulp. Place tomatoes, cut sides down, on paper towels, and let drain 15 min. Combine avocado and lemon juice in a small bowl, stirring gently; drain. Stir together mayonnaise, bacon, and green onions; add avocado mixture, and stir gently until combined. Spoon avocado mixture evenly into tomato shells. Cover with plastic wrap, and chill 1 hour. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste just before serving.

Chocolate Covered Cherries!

So tonight at my cooking class, I taught how to make Chocolate Covered Cherries. There are several different recipes, but I have only tried this one. They are really easy, and not as sickeningly sweet as store bought cordial cherries.  It was a hands on class, and so we got done quickly. When making them alone, it is a time consuming process, but worth it a few times a year. I usually make them at Christmas. This is my first time to make them for Valentines day. I don't think they will even last until Valentines day, but oh well. It's the thought that counts isn't it?

Here are the ingredients for Chocolate Covered cherries.  I buy the dipping chocolate at Sam's at Christmas time, but you can use Chocolate candy coating, or chocolate chips mixed with paraffin wax if you need to (16 oz chocolate chips, 1 bar paraffin). It just needs to harden after it has been dipped. I  buy the big jar of Cherries at Sam's, it is more cost effective, but there are about 200 cherries, which is a lot! 

 I had already drained the cherries, so I don't have pictures of that process.  

 Drain the liquid off the cherries (we save and pour on ice cream). Place the cherries on several layers of paper towels (on a cookie sheet or baking pan) to dry out. May want to let them dry for an hour or more.

While they are drying,  mix other ingredients.

This is the softened butter and the corn syrup and salt before powdered sugar was added.

Here I have mixed in 1/2 of the sugar with a spoon.

It is most effective to mix the last of the sugar with your hands until it is like play dough.

Here is the completed fondant/dough.

Take about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of the dough and flatten it out.

Wrap around the cherry and set on wax paper on a cookie sheet.  As the fondant warms up, or you get cherry juice on your fingers, the dough gets very sticky. It was much better with gloves, but you may have to wash and dry your hands a few times. Also you can put the dough in the refrigerator if it gets to sticky and warm. It is a little easier do deal with when it is  cooler.

Break up the chocolate into small pieces and melt in microwave according to instructions, or in a double boiler on stove.

I forgot to get pictures while we were dipping, but you just hold the stem of the cherry and dip in chocolate. You can use a spoon to pour over cherry. Place on wax paper and let harden. Make sure the cherries are completely covered in chocolate. Check the bottoms of the cherries after they have hardened, and make sure there is no white showing. Anywhere there is an opening, juice will start to seep out. You may have to add a little more chocolate to the bottoms of the candies.

Here are the finished product.

If you can keep them around long enough - about 2 weeks- the fondant liquefies similar to the store bought candies. Well that is what the recipe says. We haven't made it long enough. It does start to liquefy fairly quickly though.

Chocolate Covered Cherries


60 Maraschino cherries,w/stem
3 tablespoons Butter or margarine,softened
3 tablespoons Light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon Salt
2 cups Confectioner's sugar, sifted
1 1/2 pound Dipping chocolate or white chocolate ( for coating)
Drain maraschino cherries thoroughly, Place on paper toweling. Combine butter or margarine, corn syrup and salt. Stir in sifted confectioner's sugar. Knead sugar mixture until smooth ( chill if mixture is too soft.) Shape 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of the sugar mixture around each cherry. Place on a waxed-paper-lined baking sheet, chill.  Melt chocolate according to package instruction in either microwave or in double boiler. Holding cherries by stems, dip one at a time into chocolate. Spoon chocolate over cherries to coat. Chill until chocolate is hardened. Store candy in a covered container in a cool place. Let candies ripen a week or two.


For a variation, you can also melt a small amount of white candy coating and add some food coloring and drizzle on the chocolates for a fancier look.

Hootenanies

Some days I don't have enough milk for everyone to eat cereal, or I don't have enough eggs to make everyone eggs. Usually when either is the case I make pancakes with powdered milk, and it only takes too eggs. But there are days when I don't want to take the time (or I don't have the time) to make pancakes. That is when I make Hootenanies. You can mix them up and get ready while they are baking.  It is a very yummy and easy breakfast.  My kids love them.

Here they are right out of the oven. The bubbles do fall after a minute.

Here is the way we eat them, with syrup. YUMMY!

Hootenanies

6 eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup flour

Dash salt (can add up to 1 tsp, but I don't add that much)

1 stick butter or margarine (I understand you can use 1/2 that, but I haven't tried)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Melt butter in 9 x 13 baking dish in oven (watch it so you don't burn it). While butter is melting mix together the eggs, milk, flour and salt. (I use the blender)

Pour egg mixture in melted butter and return to oven and bake for 20 minutes.    Serve with syrup, or fruit jam.  You can also serve this with meat and cheese for a savory dish, but again I haven't tried this.

New Fun Treat

We found a new treat that is fun to make. Homemade Gummies. I found the recipe on OnePrettyThing.com, and followed the link to the original posting site. These are very easy and fun to make. In fact, Kelly has been making them regularly. They go fast, and all the kids eat them up.

The molds I used are silicone ice cube trays that I found. The yellow bullet shapes are from a regular ice cube tray that makes tiny ice. The were harder to get out of the rigid ice cube tray, but not impossible. I got some silicone trays at Hobby Lobby, and some at Wal Mart. I looked at candy molds, but they were much more expensive. We just put a little of the mixture in the mold, to get more candies.

Homemade Gummy Candies

1 3oz package flavored gelatin

3 envelopes unflavored gelatin

1/3 cup + 1 tbsp water

In a small saucepan, Slowly mix gelatins in water. Let sit for 10 minutes. (It will resemble play dough when it is done). Melt gelatin over double boiler (don't want to cook the gelatin, just melt it). When gelatin is melted pour into molds. Let sit in freezer for 5 minutes or refrigerator for 10 minutes. Pop out of molds, and eat.

Side note: I found other recipes that call for 1 3 oz pkg of flavored, and 7 pkgs of unflavored gelatin. That recipe didn't have the 10 minute wait time. After you mix the gelatins, you cook over LOW heat until melted and then put in molds. I haven't tried this yet, but I will. It will be interesting to see if there is a difference in final product.

Holiday Pies

Well I am finally getting around to posting about my holiday food. I know, it is about time. For Thanksgiving last year (that sounds bad, since it has only been just over a month and a half), I made 3 kinds of pie. Pumpkin, Apple, and pecan. They all turned out fantastic, but I used different recipes than normal.

The Pumpkin Pie Recipe I got off of an add, it used sweetened condensed milk rather than evaporated milk and sugar. It was very easy, and I liked it. Kenna actually helped me mix it all up. It was a great recipe for cooking with kids.

Perfect Pumpkin Pie

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin

1 (14 ounce) can EAGLE BRAND® Sweetened Condensed Milk

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Whisk pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, spices and salt in medium bowl until smooth. Pour into crust. Bake 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F and continue baking 35 to 40 minutes or until knife inserted 1 inch from crust comes out clean. Cool. Store leftovers covered in refrigerator.

The Pecan Pie was the standard recipe that I always use out of the Better Homes and Garden's New Cook Book. (I don't know how new it is, we got it as a wedding gift 15 years ago!)

Erin made these pies for me.

Pecan Pie

3 eggs

2/3 cup sugar

dash salt

1 cup dark corn syrup (I didn't have dark, used light with good results)

1/3 cup butter or margarine melted

1 cup pecan halved

Pastry for single-crust pie

In a mixing bowl beat eggs slightly. Add sugar and salt; stir till dissolved. Stir in corn syrup and butter, mix well. Mix in pecans. Pour into pie shell, and cover edges with foil. Bake at 35o degree oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil; bake about 25 minutes more until a knife inserted off-center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

The Apple Pie was from a recipe on thepioneerwoman.com It is a great recipe that Kelly helped me make. It is very good! Rather than retype the recipe I am just sending you to the site where I got it. That way I make no mistakes. :-)

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/12/scrumptous-and_i_do_mean_scrumptous-apple_pie/

All the pies were a hit. I even made my own crust, also from thepioneerwoman.com They were pretty good too. Cooking for Thanksgiving was a family affair this year. It was great to have all the help.

Smoked Chicken Salad

We had our story telling party a little over a week ago. The kids are ready to move on to an open house for Christmas but my husband still enjoys the story sharing. It is always a lot of fun.

I made 3 different appetizers, 3 types of cookies, 3 different dips, fudge, white chocolate party mix, and there were the fruit, veggie & cheese/cracker trays. We ended up having just under 50 people come. The smoked Chicken Salad and the lemon-spice swirl cookies were new recipes that I tried and they were a hit.

Smoked Chicken Salad

1 (3.5-4 lb.) rotisserie chicken
2 (15 oz.) cans black eyed peas, rinsed and drained
1 pint grape tomatoes, quartered
3/4C chopped chives
1/2C mayonnaise
1/2C sour cream
1/2t salt
1/2t pepper
1/2t liquid smoke
1 (7 oz.) pkg. miniature pita bread, cut in half
2C spring salad mix

Pull meat off of rotisserie chicken and put in work bowl of food processor. Pulse until meat is coarsely chopped, about 10 sec. In a large bowl, combine chicken, peas, tomatoes, and chives. Add mayonnaise, sour cream, salt, pepper and liquid smoke, stirring until well-combined. Line each pita half with a few leaves of salad mix and stuff with chicken salad. Yield: 40 pita halves.

Ground Beef

Ok, so life got crazy and I have not been an active poster and actually there are no guarantees about the coming future but I shared a tip last night with someone at the activity formerly known as Enrichment and thought it would be a good tip to share....

When browning ground beef put some water in the pan with it. (Do you already do this?) I read about this a couple of years ago and I LOVE the results. It creates a much softer meat than just browning it normally. So easy and can be poured off when you dump the grease. You can add up to a cup for a pound and remember you will dump it off, it changes the texture and makes it light and lovely. If you have not tried this, I would highly suggest it! Let me know what you think!

Trisha

Pasta with Chicken and Squash

I've had this recipe for a long time but I never made it because I knew the kids wouldn't be thrilled with the zucchini and summer squash. I've been making a couple of dishes each week that are new to us, trying to get some new dishes in the mix that everyone likes. I loved this dish, probably more than everyone else. Of the 4 kids, the 11 yr. old didn't like the flavor and picked at it. The other three kids (13, 9 & 9) had seconds.

While it got top ratings with 5 out of 6, I'm still sharing it because it is delicious. The noodles are covered in a creamy cheese sauce with julienned squash and chicken.

Pasta with Chicken and Squash

1 pkg. (16 oz.) spiral pasta
2C whipping cream
1T butter or margarine
2C (8 oz.) shredded Mexican cheese blend or cheddar cheese
1 small onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
5T olive or vegetable oil, divided
2 med. zucchini, julienned
2 med yellow summer squash, julienned
1-1/4t salt, divided
1/8t pepper
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, julienned
1/4t each dried basil, marjoram and savory
1/4t dried rosemary, crushed
1/8t rubbed sage

Cook pasta according to directions. Meanwhile, heat cream and butter in a saucepan until butter melts. Add cheese; cook and stir until melted. Rinse and drain pasta; add to cheese mixture. Cover and keep warm. In a skillet over medium heat, saute onion and garlic in 3T oil until onion is tender. Add squash; cook until tender. Add 1t of salt and pepper; remove and keep warm. Add remaining oil to skillet; cook chicken with herbs and remaining salt until juices run clear. Place pasta on a serving platter; top with chicken and squash.

Homemade Pop Tarts

My kids like pop tarts, but they get expensive. I decided to make my own. They are actually really easy, and they taste so much better than store bought. Now the trick is making some and actually getting them in the freezer for the kids for breakfast. This batch didn't last that long. I got the recipe from the internet (oops I forgot to keep the link). The dough was very flaky. I am pretty sure any pie crust dough will work. We like the brown sugar cinnamon kind, so I made a paste of butter, brown sugar and cinnamon and spread in the middle. I will attach the recipe I used.

Homemade Pop Tarts

4 cups Flour
1 3/4 cups Vegetable Shortening
2 tablespoon Sugar
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
1 Egg
1 teaspoon Vinegar
1/2 cup Cold Water
16 tablespoons Jam -- any flavor divided

In a large bowl, cut flour and shortening together (I added all the dry ingredients together then wet) with pastry blender or two butter knives, until completely blended (mixture will resemble crumbs). Add sugar, baking powder, salt, egg, vinegar and cold water. Mix with hands until mixture forms a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Divide dough into fourths, refrigerating the portions you are not working with yet.

Take first 1/4 of dough and roll out onto a floured surface. Cut into rectangles using a sharp knife. It is helpful to make a template the size you wish your poptarts to be, from cardboard or heavy plastic, so they will be a uniform size. Spread on tbsp. jam on one half of the rectangles, leaving a half inch or so on the edges without jam. Cover with the other half of the rectangles. Crimp edges with a fork. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 12 - 15 minutes or until the pie dough is evenly browned and cooked through. Cool completely and place into zip baggies for storage until you are ready to eat them. Repeat with remaining dough and jam until it is all completed.

Variation: Glaze poptarts with a simple glaze made from powdered sugar, milk and vanilla extract. Be sure to let glaze dry hard before placing poptarts into storage baggies.

Pop-Tarts may be stored up to one week as you would store bread, or frozen for up to 3 months before use.

For the rest of the dough I used the circle cutter/sealer from pampered chef. It made them a little smaller, but it was easier than the rectangles. I cut the circles, put filling on one, covered and then sealed as best I could.

Laundry Soap

I'm posting a different type of recipe today. In order to save money, I looked for a recipe to make my own laundry soap earlier this year. Who doesn't like to save money?

If I were to use Tide, I would spend $13.99 for 52 loads. I'm spending $3.79 for 128 loads of laundry (4 batches of the recipe - 1/4 of the supplies). I bought Mule Team Borax ($2.79), Arm & Hammer Washing Soda ($2.07) and 8 bars Fels Naptha soap ($1.29/ea) for a total of $15.18. For the same number of loads, I can spend $137.75 for Tide or $15.18 and make it myself. I think I'll make my own.

Laundry Soap

1/2C Borax

1/2C Washing Soda

1C Fels Naptha, grated

I use a box grater for the Fels Naptha, but you can use your food processor or other grater. Mix it all together and store in a plastic container. Use 1T (yes, that is 1 tablespoon) of soap in your laundry. I use 1/4C white vinegar for softener and I still use a dryer sheet for static cling in the dryer.

Don't expect bubbles like you get with detergents.

Microwave Warnings

I decided that I would include a few of my failures in cooking just so no one would think I was perfect or anything of the sort.

Just so you know when trying to bake cookies in the microwave, 4 minutes is WAY to long.

The other day I was baking cookies. It got to the last bit of dough and there was enough for maybe 4 cookies. I decided that I would experiment and cook them in the microwave. I put them on a glass plate, and set the cooking time for 5 minutes. I checked the cookies after 2 1/2 minutes, and thought they would take a little longer. So I left the room for just a second. A minute later I smelled them burning. So I ran in the kitchen to stop them. Only to find smoke pouring out of my microwave. I quickly pulled the plate out and ran it outside to cool off. It took a while to air out our house.

It smelled very similar to popcorn burned in the microwave (which I have done also), but nothing like burned cracked wheat. (Which by the way cooks much better when you add water. That smell was horrible. I guess I don't know if it was the burning wheat that smelled so bad, or the plastic Pampered Chef Microwave bowl that melted at the time. I was making Marlin his breakfast, and was in such a hurry that I forgot the water. I think he ate granola that morning.) I guess, because of the sugar, it smelled similar to when Andrew put a bowl of fondant (for cakes) in the microwave for 50 minutes. We found that after about 5. It smelled kind of like burning marshmallow.

So for the most part I learned

1) to pay attention when you bake in the microwave - I think they would have been ok had I taken them out at 2 1/2 minutes.

2) I am prone to stupidity.

3) I will still focus my microwave use on reheating and defrosting. It doesn't smell nearly as bad.

Have fun cooking. I hope you learn from my mistakes, and don't have to put your nose through the trauma of burning food in the microwave.

Cobb Salad w/ Chili-Lime Dressing

I love this salad because everyone in our family will eat it and likes it. I must admit that I scale back on the avocado if it is just us because it is not a favorite in the salad but in small doses, they will eat it.

I've found as we've lived around the country that cobb salads are different every where. There are some basic parts that are standard (i.e., chicken, tomato, bacon & avocado) and the rest is up to the chef.

Salad

10 oz. Romaine lettuce
1 can kidney beans, rinsed
1C shredded cheese (I use Monterey/Colby mix)
1C chopped tomatoes
1/2 lb. chicken, cooked and cubed
1 avocado, peeled and cubed
1/2C chopped red onion
1/3C bacon, crumbled or chopped

Dressing

1 (4 oz.) can chopped green chilies, undrained
2/3C sour cream
1/4C cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped
2T lime juice
1/2t pepper
1/3t hot sauce
1/4t salt

For salad, place lettuce in serving bowl. Make columns with remaining ingredients.

For dressing, place ingredients in food processor; blend. Chill until serving.

Sweet & Sour Meatballs

This is one of those quick dinners that is great to fall back on when you have a busy day and need to get dinner on the table. This is super easy with the water for the rice boiling and the rice cooking while the meatballs are simmering and they finish about the same time. My family likes it with egg noodles too.

I used to make the meatballs from scratch but things got busy for a while and I've been using the meatballs from the freezer section.

1 can (20 oz.) pineapple chunks
1/3C water
3T vinegar
1T soy sauce
1/2C brown sugar
3T cornstarch
1 batch of 30 meatballs
1 lg. green pepper, cut into 1" pieces
Hot, cooked rice

Drain pineapple, reserving juice. Add water to juice to measure 1 cup; pour into a large skillet. Add water, vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar and cornstarch; stir until smooth. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened. Add pineapple chunks, meatballs and pepper. Simmer for 20 minutes or until heated through. Serve over rice.


I like a little more sauce so I usually add water to bring it to 2C and double the vinegar, soy sauce and brown sugar. I use 5T of cornstarch because I don't like it as thick. I leave it with one can of pineapple and one pepper because not all of my kids are fans of those items and I toss in more meatballs so there will be something left over for my husband to take for lunch the next day.