Election 2008 (of recipes, that is)

I need to make a couple of side dishes for Thanksgiving. Here are some of my favorites - feel free to leave a comment and cast your vote!

Squash casserole
1 lb frozen or fresh yellow squash
½ cup mayo
½ cup bell pepper, chopped
½ cup onion, chopped
1 egg
1 stick margarine, cut in half
salt and pepper, to taste
1 ½ cup grated cheese
20 Ritz crackers, crushed

Wash, slice, and cook squash in salted water for 15-20 minutes. Drain and blend well. Add ½ stick margarine, salt, pepper, egg, mayo, onion, and bell pepper. Pour into greased 8x8” pan. Cover with grated cheese and crushed crackers. Melt ½ stick margarine and pour over cracker crumbs. Cook at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Microwave Scalloped Potatoes
4 medium potatoes
1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
¼ cup chopped onion
1 ½ cup sweet milk
½ stick butter or margarine

Peel and thinly slice potatoes; arrange in 3 quart glass casserole. Sprinkle on flour, salt and chopped onion. Pour milk over all. Dot with butter or margarine. Cover with glass lid or plastic wrap. Microwave on high for 10 minutes. Stir; recover, and continue cooking on high for 8 to 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Let stand. If necessary, reheat potatoes, covered, for 3-4 minutes or until hot.

Broccoli Casserole
2 10-oz packages frozen, chopped broccoli
Cook according to directions and drain well. Place in ungreased 3 qt oven-safe dish.

Mix:
1 can cream of mushroom soup
½ cup mayonnaise
1 ½ cups sharp cheddar cheese, grated
2 eggs

Pour mixture on top of broccoli. Cook at 400 degrees for 45-50 min. Let rest 5 minutes before serving.

Potato Casserole
1 2 lb bag hash brown potatoes
½ c chopped onion
1 stick melted oleo
1 tsp salt
2 c crushed corn flakes
¼ tsp pepper
2 c grated cheddar cheese
2 c sour cream
1 can cream of chicken soup

Mix all together (except corn flakes and ½ butter). Put ½ oleo in mixture and top with the other half (mixed with corn flakes). Cover and bake at 350 for one hour.

Fancy Green Beans
(Recipe courtesy Paula Deen)
2 tablespoons teriyaki sauce
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 pounds fresh green beans
2 slices bacon
1/2 cup red bell pepper strips
1/2 cup thin onion wedges
1/2 cup whole cashews

In a small bowl, stir together the teriyaki sauce, honey, and butter. Fill a bowl with cold water and ice cubes.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the lemon juice. Drop in the beans and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, or until beans are bright green. Drain the beans in a colander and then plunge them into the iced water. Drain again and set aside.

In a skillet, cook the bacon until very crispy, crumble and set aside. Saute the bell pepper and onion in the hot bacon fat for 2 minutes. Add the beans, cashews, and bacon to the skillet. Add the teriyaki-honey sauce and toss gently.


Bacon Wrapped Green Beans
Cut slices of bacon into 3-4 pieces each. Wrap one piece around 3-4 green beans (canned kind). Stick with toothpick. Pour bottle of Russian dressing over beans and bake until bacon is done (350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes).

Corn Souffle
1 15-oz can whole kernel corn, drained
1 15- oz can cream style corn
1 box Jiffy corn muffin mix
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
1 stick butter, melted
1 c sour cream

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Pour into a greased 13x9 inch baking pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 50-60 minutes, or until center is firm.

Carrot Souffle (if you have another recipe for this, feel free to send it my way!)
1 3/4 pounds carrots, peeled and chopped
1 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup margarine, softened
2 teaspoons confectioners' sugar


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a large pot of boiling water, cook the carrots until very tender. Drain, and transfer to a large mixing bowl. While carrots are warm, use an electric mixer to beat with sugar, baking powder, and vanilla extract until smooth. Mix in the flour, eggs, and margarine. Transfer to a 2 quart baking dish. Bake 1 hour in the preheated oven, or until top is golden brown. Sprinkle lightly with confectioners' sugar before serving.

Fruit Sauce

On tonight's menu at our house is pork tenderloin. My favorite way to serve this is marinated the night before, then after we cook it, we slice it and serve it with this sauce (this is my grandmother's recipe). YUM! But don't just take my word for it - a friend of mine who had this at my house last spring mentioned it to me today. She remembered it after about 7 months! She is going to serve her pork tonight with this sauce and needed the recipe. I imagine this would be good with some other types of meat or chicken as well...

Fruit Sauce for Meat
Ingredients:
1 can cranberry sauce, whole berry
1- 15 oz. can pears, cinnamon (if you can't find this, just use regular pears and add cinnamon at your discretion)
1- 11 oz. can mandarin oranges
1 granny smith apple, peeled and chopped
1 cup sugar
½ cup dried fruit mix

Directions:
Cook over medium heat for 45 minutes.

"Holy" Chicken Casserole

We had this dish for dinner last night - YUM! I've had it a couple of times when a friend made it, but I just recently got the recipe so this was my first time making it. My tip: Don't let your 3-year-old help with the cheese, unless you like a LOT of Swiss cheese :) Also, I tend to substitute low fat ingredients instead of the real ones, and it turned out just fine using low fat items.

I served this with my favorite (highly seasoned) sauteed yellow and zucchini squash with red peppers, and some potatoes and green beans with rosemary sauce (one of those steamable packages from the frozen section). Next time, I think I will make several dishes of this and freeze all except one.

"Holy" Chicken Casserole
Ingredients
4-5 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
8-oz cream cheese
1 can cream of mushroom soup
shredded Swiss cheese
1 sleeve Ritz crackers, crushed
1 stick butter, melted

Directions
Mix first 3 ingredients together in casserole dish. Sprinkle cheese on top. Mix melted butter and crackers and place on top of dish. Bake at 375 degrees for 30-45 minutes, until hot and bubbly.

Delicious Dips!

It's party season, and that means time for lots of great appetizers. Here are some very yummy dips that I've made or tried lately. For the first three, you can make these to your spiciness preference. For all of these, you can use low fat cheeses and other ingredients to make them a little healthier.

Rotel and Corn Dip
1 can whole kernel corn
1 can Rotel tomatoes
8-oz cream cheese
mozzarella cheese

Completely drain the corn and Rotel. Soften the cream cheese and mix all ingredients together. Place in an 8x8 dish and cover with mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Great with Fritos.

Cream Cheese and Salsa Dip
2 8-oz packages of cream cheese
16 oz salsa
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Layer the ingredients in a 13x9 pan in the order shown. Heat at 350 for about 30 minutes and serve with tortilla chips.

Smoky Cheese Dip
This one is from Holly's parents - they served it Halloween night and it was sooo yummy! They didn't know amounts though, and said they just taste it as they are making it. I'm not always successful with recipes like that, but someone please make this and invite me to your party!

Shredded cheddar cheese
Jalapenos in a jar (chopped)
Liquid Smoke (be generous for an extra smoky flavor)
Mayonnaise

Mix all ingredients, including some of the jalapeno juice - make the spiciness to your liking. Don't use too much mayo - just to tame some of the jalapeno flavor and make the dip stick together. Form into a ball and serve with Fritos. YUM!

Apple Dip
This is the best thing that ever happened to apples - I think even better than the apple pie!

2 8-oz cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 package Health chips

Let cream cheese soften. Blend cream cheese, sugars and vanilla; add Heath chips (if making ahead, don't add Heath chips until the day of the party because they will slightly melt over time). Buy the apples already sliced in the produce section, or slice apples and put in pineapple juice so they will not turn brown.

Seasonal Favorite: Praline Spice Cake

This is one of my favorite recipes for the fall... Be careful though, because if the humidity is too high when cooking it, the icing might not set (don't make this when it's raining).


Praline Spice Cake

1 box spice cake mix
2 cups sugar
½ cup half-n-half
1 stick butter
30 caramel candies (or 1 cup bulk caramel for candy making)
2 cups pecan halves
1 teaspoon vanilla

Bake spice cake according to directions on box in a greased 9x13 inch pan (add a little cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice if desired). Cook the sugar, half-n-half and butter to soft ball stage. Add caramels until melted, then add pecans and vanilla. Poke holes in cake with large fork. Pour praline topping on cake. Serve as soon as praline topping sets.

Cream Cheese Sausage Crescents

This is a recipe from Julie :) I made this a few weeks ago for Sunday School breakfast, and everyone loved it! Oh, and I made it ahead of time for our little family just to see if it was good - yep, it definitely was! It didn't last too long in our house... So easy and so delicious!

Cream Cheese Sausage Crescents
Ingredients:
2-3 packages of crescent rolls
1 8oz package of cream cheese
1 pound of sausage

Directions:
Brown sausage and drain. Mix cream cheese and sausage until well blended. Unroll each tube of crescents and separate. Put 1 tablespoon of cream cheese sausage mixture at the large part of the crescent. Roll crescent. Bake at 350 for 15 to 20 minutes or until thoroughly cooked.

Note: The original recipe called for croissants in a tube, but I couldn't find those. Crescent rolls worked just fine!

Warm Caramel Apple Cake

I wasn't planning on adding recipes that I haven't tried yet, but this one landed in my inbox today and looked too good to keep to myself! I'm trying to eat healthier these days, so I probably won't make this anytime soon - someone please make this and tell me how good it is!

Warm Caramel Apple Cake (thanks to Betty Crocker!)

Serve this yummy apple upside-down cake warm from the oven.

Cake

1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 large cooking apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced (about 2 1/3 cups)
1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® yellow cake mix
1 1/4 cups water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1/4 teaspoon apple pie spice

Topping
2/3 cup Betty Crocker® Whipped fluffy white frosting (from 12-oz container)
1/2 cup frozen (thawed) whipped topping
Caramel topping, if desired

1. Heat oven to 350°F. In 1-quart heavy saucepan, cook butter, whipping cream and brown sugar over low heat, stirring occasionally, just until butter is melted. Pour into 13x9-inch pan. Sprinkle with pecans; top with sliced apples.
2. In large bowl, beat cake mix, water, oil, eggs and apple pie spice with electric mixer on low speed until moistened. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes. Carefully spoon batter over apple mixture.
3. Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Loosen sides of cake from pan. Place heatproof serving platter upside down on pan; carefully turn platter and pan over. Let pan remain over cake about 1 minute so caramel can drizzle over cake. Remove pan.
4. In small bowl, mix frosting and whipped topping. Serve warm cake topped with frosting mixture and drizzled with caramel topping.

Substitution
You can use cinnamon for the apple pie spice for a slightly different flavor.
Success
Granny Smith and Braeburn are good apple choices to use in this recipe.

Upside-Down Pizza

Super easy and kid-friendly!

Upside-Down Pizza

Ingredients:
2 pounds ground beef
1 cup chopped onion
1 15-oz can tomato sauce
1 envelope spaghetti sauce mix
8-oz sour cream
8-oz shredded mozzarella
1 can crescent rolls

Directions:
Brown ground chuck and onion in large skillet. Drain and return to skillet. Stir in tomato sauce and spaghetti sauce mix; cook over low heat 10 minutes, stirring often. Spoon beef mixture into lightly greased 13x9 pan; top with sour cream and sprinkle with cheese. Unroll crescent rolls and place over cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Serve by cutting along the natural perforations in the crescent rolls.
Note: Try adding other pizza ingredients, like mushrooms and pepperoni.

Two Favorites: Creamy Garlic Chicken and Vegetable Soup

I didn't post yesterday because it was Alan's birthday and we were busy all day. So, I thought I would include two recipes today :) These are two of my favorites... I just made the Chicken recipe earlier this week - it is so easy and I love to keep the ingredients on hand so I can cook this on a night when I don't have anything else planned. The soup is my absolute favorite vegetable soup, and the weather outside today is perfect for it!

Creamy Garlic Chicken
Makes 8 to 10 servings

Ingredients:
2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into strips (I use chicken tenderloin pieces and put them in the pan frozen – couldn’t be easier!)
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 cup sour cream
1/2 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 cloves garlic, minced

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Place chicken in an ungreased 9x13 inch baking dish. In a medium bowl combine the soup, sour cream, cream cheese and garlic. Mix well and pour mixture over chicken.
3. Bake uncovered in preheated oven for 1 hour.


Vegetable Soup
Ingredients:
2 lb boneless stew meat
8 cups water
salt and pepper
1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
1 large onion, sliced or chopped, divided
1 soup bone
1 large potato, chopped
1 (16 oz) can whole kernel corn
3 sprigs parsley, finely cut
¼ tsp rosemary
¼ tsp thyme
1/3 cup barley
¼ tsp marjoram
½ bay leaf
1 (32 oz) can tomatoes, undrained
2 (10 oz) pkgs frozen mixed vegetables (I buy soup vegetables) or 2 (16 oz) cans mixed vegetables

Directions:
Cut meat into small chunks. Place in large Dutch oven. Add water, salt, pepper, tomato paste, ½ onion, and soup bone. Simmer, covered, for 1 ½ hours or until meat is tender. Remove bone; skim fat from top. Add barley; simmer for 45 minutes. Add rest of onion, tomatoes, vegetables, parsley, rosemary, marjoram, thyme, and bay leaf. Simmer until vegetables are tender. Remove bay leaf. Seasonings should be omitted or adjusted, according to taste. Makes 8-10 large servings.

My special secret tip: Buy a tea strainer and put whole peppercorns in it. Leave it in the soup for the duration of cooking for extra flavor (I learned this from watching cooking on TV :) ) Also, I add more frozen veggies than it calls for - my version is less soup and more vegetables. Can add celery salt and garlic salt or powder to taste.

Comfort Food: Easy Chicken and Dumplings

This dish has quickly become a staple for me when I take food to a sick friend or someone who's just had a baby, etc. It's well-liked by most everyone, and couldn't be easier! It's also easy to eat for someone who is ill or otherwise needs something pretty mild.

I have to say though, I made this last night for my friend, Kimberly, who just had a baby. I made a double recipe so we could eat some too, and I didn't measure the liquid. That was a mistake. After I got back home from taking her their dish, I found that ours was very thick and dry, and some of the biscuits might not have been completely done (due to the lack of liquid to cook them in). Oops! If you happen to read this, Kimberly - I'm sorry it wasn't as good as it should have been! Otherwise, this is an extremely easy dish to make and before then, I thought it to be foolproof.

The credit for this delicious recipe goes to Holly :)

Chicken and Dumplings
Ingredients:
6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2 cans cream of celery soup (any cream soup works - I usually use 1 cream of celery and 1 cream of chicken, but have used mushroom as well)
Salt and pepper to taste
12 ounce refrigerated biscuit dough (I buy flaky)

Directions:
In large pot over high heat, combine the chicken with enough water to cover and boil 15-20 minutes. Remove chicken from pot. Reserve 3 cups of the broth and leave in the pot; discard the rest. After chicken has cooled a bit, pull apart into bite size pieces; return to pot with broth.
Reduce heat to medium, and add the soup. Season with salt and pepper. Cut or pull biscuit dough into pieces and add to the soup. Simmer over medium heat for 7-8 minutes or until the dough is cooked through.

Don't forget to leave a comment if you try this!

Pumpkin Muffins

Hi there!

I have decided to start a daily recipe blog, since I love to cook and collect recipes. A friend of mine, Karen (I'm sure she'll read this!), has her own recipe site and was the inspiration for this. I'll post her site too, but please don't compare. Her recipes are in such neat format and order... http://sites.google.com/site/recipeconnection/recipe-pdfs

So, here goes. Today's recipe is for Pumpkin Muffins. I started with this one because of the season we're in, and because I recently made these (twice) and they received RAVE reviews by everyone who tried them (including Alan, who doesn't like anything, and I, who don't really love pumpkin all that much (I'm struggling with the grammar here and have changed it twice, so someone please help me out!)). This is also the easiest recipe I've ever seen.

Pumpkin Muffins
Ingredients:
1 box spice cake mix
1 15-oz can pumpkin

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and spray muffin tins with cooking spray. Mix ingredients well (white lumps will end up gritty if you don't get them mixed well enough). Fill muffin tins (12 regular or 24 mini) and bake - approx 12-15 minutes for mini, and 20-25 for regular. Be sure to shake the tin down a bit before putting in the oven. They don't move much, so whatever shape you put in the oven is the shape you're going to take out (they aren't the prettiest muffins ever). A toothpick inserted into a muffin should come clean when they are done.

Leave a comment to let me know how you like these!