Stuffed Mushrooms

Ok, here's the second one. You would not believe how good these taste with so few ingredients. I even have to pop bits of the filling into my mouth while I'm making these because I can't wait until I'm all done!

2 Pkgs. Whole Button Mushrooms

8 oz. Cream Cheese

1 Pkg. Jimmy Dean Sausage Tube

1. Cook sausage over medium-high heat until no longer pink.
2. Meanwhile, clean mushrooms and remove stems.
3. Chop stems.
   
4. Combine stems, cooked sausage and cream cheese until mixed together (if the sausage is still warm, it will melt the cream cheese and make it easier to stir).
   
5. Stuff mixture into mushrooms (and don't worry if they are bulging far over the top). I've tried many methods for this, but you really just have to use your hands.
   
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes.

You could also sprinkle bread crumbs or parmesean cheese on them if you wanted to, but I really think they are fine just the way they are. CAUTION...Make sure you have a napkin when you eat them, because they drip!

Bacon-Wrapped Water Chestnuts

I'm posting my two favorite appetizers that I always make during the holidays. Wait til you try these two EASY recipes. You won't believe how good they taste for being so simple!

1 Pkg. Bacon

2-3 Cans Whole Water Chestnuts

1 Cup Ketchup

1 Cup Brown Sugar

1. Combine Ketchup and Brown Sugar.
2. Cut all of the bacon in half.
3. Separate the bacon and lay on a plate with paper towels. Cook in the microwave until they're about half-way cooked.
   
4. Wrap bacon around water chestnuts and secure with a toothpick.
5. Dip each one into ketchup mixture and set into a glass pan.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Ok, I know the Ketchup and Brown Sugar mixture sounds nasty, but it's really the only combo that works. I've tried every kind of BBQ sauce known to man on these, and they just don't work! Ketchup is really just tomato sauce, sugar and vinegar anyway, so that sugar really comes out when you bake it and it becomes sweet and delicious...of course you're also adding the sweet brown sugar to it as well, but man, it just doesn't get better than this!

Taco Soup

Everyone has a recipe for Taco Soup, but I'm posting this one anyway because it's my favorite. I always make this on halloween and serve it with corn bread. It's so easy to make because everything is right from your pantry. You just throw in can after can!

1. Saute ground beef and onion together in a large pot over medium-high heat.
1 1/2 lbs. Ground Beef
1 Onion

2. Add the following to the pot and bring to a boil:
1 Can Green Beans & Liquid
1 Can Whole Kernal Corn & Liquid
1 Can Red Kidney Beans & Liquid
1 Can (pint) Tomatoes
1 Can Beef Broth
1 Can Tomato Sauce
1 Pkg. Dry Taco Seasoning

3. Reduce heat and simmer at least 1 hour to blend flavors.

4. Ladle into bowls and top with the following (if desired):
Grated Cheddar Cheese
Sour Cream
Fritos
Sliced Green Onions

Cake Decorating Tips

Do many of you have the same problems with frosting cake as I do? I always try to frost it and end up churning the cake up right into my frosting. It's so frustrating. My sister-in-law, Kaleena, is an awesome cake decorator and shared these tips with me.

1. Be sure you have good cake pans. It's worth the extra money for the non-stick cake pans to make sure your cake doesn't stick. It's much easier to frost when it's smooth.
2. Freeze cake for an hour or two before frosting.
3. Use a cake decorating spatula. It just makes the job easier.
4. Use plenty of frosting, usually about two pillsbury containers per one box of cake mix. Just gob it on there and then you're essentially just pushing the frosting around to cover the cake.
5. After spreading frosting around, dip knife into cold water to smooth out frosting all over cake.

These tips helped me, so I thought they might help you too. Good Luck!

Pirate Ship Cake

I was so proud of myself for making this cake for Jakey's first birthday. I'm not a great "baker" and my cakes never turn out, so I pretty much gave up on them a long time ago. I've never made Hailee a birthday cake, I always buy them or have someone else make them for me. I decided I'm going to start trying to make my own kids birthday cakes. You know, just one of those things that makes me feel like a better mom, as irrational as that may be. Anyway, I loved how this one turned out!
It was actually pretty simple. I got the idea on the internet and then made some improvisations. Here are the steps:

1. Bake cake according to package directions in two round cake pans.
2. While cake is baking, frost the bottom of a cookie sheet with blue frosting for the water and position Swedish Fish and/or Gummy Sharks around.
3. When cake is cool, cut each circle in half.
4. Use frosting to "glue" each half circle together to make a boat shape. Cut a tiny bit off the bottom so it will stand upright.
5. Frost the top and sides and transfer to frosted cookie sheet.
6. Use "pirrohette" cookies around the edges of the top to form a "wooden railing". Pipe more frosting around the top of the cookies to add a second layer of cookies.
7. Insert Swiss Rolls or Ho Ho's with straws into the side of the ship to form "cannons".
8. Punch holes into white cardstock and slide a straw through to form the "sails".
9. Decorate the top of the cake with a pile of Nestle Treasures for "treasure chests", a pile of Whoppers for "cannon balls" and toy pirate figurines. I also put a pirate bracelet across the front for decoration.

Just have fun with it and good luck!

Gazpacho

I have always loved Gazpacho and there are tons of recipes out there for it, but this one is official. I got this recipe from my sister-in-law, Kaleena. Her family is from Spain and this is the recipe her Grandma makes. If you don't know what Gazpacho is, it's a cold soup that tastes similar to salsa. There aren't exact measurements, so you just have to do it to taste, but with the delicious ingredients in here it wouldn't matter what the ratio's were, it would still taste good.

2 Medium Tomatoes
1/4 Green Pepper
1/2 Cucumber, peeled and seeded
1 Clove Garlic
1 Serving of hard French Bread, soaked in water
2-3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2-3 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons Salt
Water to your thickness

Mix all ingredients in a blender and serve in a bowl or cup.

Frog Eye Salad

This is a common dish (at least it is around here), but I really love this recipe and make this often in the summer, especially when I need to bring a dish for a party. It feeds a ton of people and the leftovers are great.

1 Box Acini de Pepe (in the pasta section of the grocery store)

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.
2. Rinse and cool.

1 Cup Sugar
2 Eggs, beaten
2 Cups Pineapple Juice
2 Tablespoons Flour
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice

3. While pasta is cooking, combine above ingredients, cook until thickened and let cool.
4. Pour sauce over pasta and store in fridge overnight.

2 Cups Mandarin Oranges
2 Cans (20 oz.) Pineapple Tidbits
1 Can Crushed Pineapple
2 (8 oz.) Cool Whip
2 Cups Mini Marshmallows

5. In the morning, add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine.

In this picture I just garnished it with some clementines.

Broccoli Salad

This is great for summer too, because you can use up all your vegetables. You could throw extra vegetables in because it would taste great with any combination.

Tops off 4 bundles of Broccoli, cut to desired size
2 Carrots, Chopped
1 Bunch Green Onion
2 Cups Celery, Chopped
1 Cup Craisins
4 Tablespoons Bacon or Bacon Bits
1 Cup Honey Roasted Peanuts (optional)

1. Add all ingredients to a bowl, set aside.

Dressing:
3/4 Cup Mayonnaise
1/3 Cup Sugar
2 Tablespoons Vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Curry

2. Mix dressing to taste, pour over salad and mix.

Stuffed Tomatoes

I thought I'd post some of my favorite summertime recipes since we all have an abundance of produce right now. These are so easy to make, but they look really fancy. They'd be great to serve to guests.

5 Tomatoes
2 Jarred Pimientos, drained and chopped
1/4 Red Onion
1/2 Small Zucchini, diced into 1/4 in. squares
1 Jalapeno, seeded and chopped
1/2 Lemon
1/2 teaspoon Oregano
2 Tablespoons Fresh Cilantro or Flat-Leaf Parsley, chopped
2 Tablespoons Bread Crumbs
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

1. Cut the tops off 4 tomatoes and trim a thin slice off the bottoms so they will sit upright. Hollow out the tomatoes with a spoon and discard the insides. Sprinkle the tomatoes with salt and pepper.
2. Seed and chop the remaining tomato and place in bowl.
3. Add the next 7 ingredients to the bowl.
4. Sprinkle bread crumbs evenly over mixture.
5. Add olive oil and salt and pepper and toss mixture to combine.
6. Fill the empty tomatoes with stuffing and serve.

Calling for Recipes!

Hey Everyone! I need some ideas and I want to post some recipes from other people. Send me your favorite recipes so I can share them with others! Email them to cookinbrooke@gmail.com. Thanks!

Tangy Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Chips

I'm trying to think of fun recipes for summertime that you can make to bring to parties or just different ways to use all the readily available fruits and vegetables during this time of year. I am a huge fan of any kind of chips and salsa, definitely my weak spot, but I like knowing that at least the salsa is packed with vitamins and nutrients. Here's a unique one that I just love. In this recipe you make your own chips and they are baked, so it's fairly healthy.

1 Tablespoon Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
4 (7 in.) Flour Tortillas
1 Cup Raspberries (fresh or frozen)
2 Peaches, peeled and chopped
2 Kiwifruit, peeled, sliced and quartered
1 Lime
1 teaspoon Sugar

Cinnamon Chips:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a flour/sugar shaker, combine sugar and cinnamon.
3. Using kitchen spritzer, lightly spray tortillas with water; sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar mixture.
4. Using pizza cutter, cut each tortilla into 8 wedges; place in single layer on flat baking stone. Bake 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned and crisp. Remove to nonstick cooling rack. Cool completely.

Fruit Salsa:
1. Place raspberries, peaches and kiwifruit in 1 qt. batter bowl.
2. Add zest and juice from lime.
3. Add 1 tsp. Sugar and mix all ingredients gently.

Cucumber Dip

This is one of my favorite dips during the summer. I make it all the time. Every time I bring it somewhere I get requests for the recipe. It seems like it wouldn't have a lot of flavor because there aren't many ingredients, but it really does. I got this from my friend, Natalie, several years ago. I did make one adjustment to the original recipe and that is that I added the garlic. If you're not a big garlic fan, just take it out because it didn't originally call for it anyway.

1 Pint Cottage Cheese
1 Pint Sour Cream
1 Cucumber, peeled & shredded
3 Green Onions, sliced
1 Clove Garlic, finely chopped

Combine all ingredients and serve with Ruffles potato chips.

I decorated the top with green onion and a little bit of chili powder, just for garnish.

Tomato Tip

Don't you love fresh tomatoes during summertime? Especially right out of the garden. Yum! Well, I learned something a few years ago that I really never knew before and I need to make sure everyone else out there knows it too! Never, ever store tomatoes in the fridge. It completely changes their flavor and texture. I thought I didn't like tomatoes until I learned this. When you bring them home, just keep them out in room temperature. They will taste so much better! If you don't believe what a difference it makes, do a test. Put one in the fridge and keep one out and you'll see what I mean. You'll never store tomatoes in the fridge again. One rule of thumb I use is I pay attention to how it's stored at the grocery store. If it's in the refrigerated section, it should obviously go in the fridge and vice versa.

Chili's Peanut Dipping Sauce

This recipe is also from Chili's and meant to be served with the Asian Lettuce Wraps, but you could use this sauce for plenty of things besides the lettuce wraps, so I posted it separately.

1/2 Cup Creamy Peanut Butter
1/3 Cup Water
2 Tablespoons White Vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Ginger, finely minced
1/8 teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
1/4 Cup Granulated Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1/2 teaspoon Chili Oil
1/2 teaspoon Vegetable Oil
1 Tablespoon Brown Sugar

1. Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan over medium/low heat.
2. Heat while whisking until sauce becomes smooth.
3. Remove from heat when done.

Chili's Sesame-Ginger Sauce

This is a recipe from Chili's that is meant to be served with their Asian Lettuce Wraps. I posted it separately because this sauce would be delicious on many things, not just the lettuce wraps.

1/4 Cup Water
1 teaspoon arrowroot (or cornstarch)
1/3 Cup Granulated Sugar
1/3 Cup White Vinegar
1/4 Cup Soy Sauce
1 teaspoon Ginger, finely minced
1 teaspoon Vegetable Oil
1/2 teaspoon Sesame Seeds
1/4 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1 dash Red Pepper Flakes
1 dash Parsley

1. Combine the water and arrowroot in a small bowl and mix until arrowroot is dissolved.
2. Combine this solution with the remaining ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat.
3. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer 2 minutes.

Chili's Asian Lettuce Wraps

I love these lettuce wraps. They are so good! I always ordered them at Chili's, until recently they discontinued making them. That was a sad day for me. Fortunately, someone gave me this recipe, which is the exact Chili's recipe. It's pretty involved, so you really could cut out some steps (like the way it is served), but I wanted to put the entire recipe here in case you feel so inclined to make them exactly as they are supposed to be.

Chicken:
1 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil
4 Chicken Breast Fillets
4 Green Onions
1/2 Cup Water Chestnuts, minced
1/4 Cup Sliced Almonds
1 Head Butter Lettuce

Stir Fry Sauce:
1/4 Cup Water
1 teaspoon Arrowroot (or Cornstarch)
1/3 Cup Soy Sauce
1/4 Cup Granulated Sugar
1/4 Cup White Vinegar
1 Tablespoon Dried Chives
1 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil
2 teaspoons Sesame Seeds
1 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
1 teaspoon Chili Oil
1 teaspoon Creamy Peanut Butter

STIR FRY SAUCE:
1. Combine the water and arrowroot in a small bowl and stir until arrowroot is dissolved.
2. Add this solution to the remaining ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 to 6 minutes or until thick.

CHICKEN:
1. Heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook the chicken breast until done (3-5 minutes per side), turning every couple of minutes.
2. Remove the cooked chicken breast to a cutting board and slice it into strips with a sharp knife. Keep the pan hot.
3. Load the chicken back into the same pan over medium/high heat, and add the water chestnuts. Heat for 1 minute.
3. Add 5 tablespoons of stir fry sauce to the chicken and heat for 2 minutes, stirring often. Sauce should be bubbling.
4. Add the sliced green onions and stir.

TO SERVE:
Prepare each serving plate with a bed of bean threads (optional)-(see directions below).
Spoon one-fourth of the chicken onto the bean threads.
Sprinkle the chicken with about a tablespoon of sliced almonds.
Add three leaves of butter lettuce to the plate, along with a garnish of shredded carrots.
Repeat for the remaining servings. Serve with sesame-ginger dipping sauce and peanut dipping sauce on the side (see other recipes).

Bean threads can be found in the Asian food section of your supermarket. Before using as a garnish, the threads must be flash-fried in a skillet in 2 inches of hot vegetable oil. When the threads float to the top, remove them to a towel to drain.

Apple Pancakes with Cinnamon Syrup

This recipe is from my mom. She made these often when we were still living at home. It's nice having another recipe to throw your apples in. I love these and the syrup is so good, you could drink it!

Pancakes:
1 1/2 Cups Flour, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 Tablespoon Sugar
3/4 teaspoon Salt
1 Egg, beaten
1 Cup Evaporated Milk
1 Tablespoon Butter
1 Apple, peeled & chopped

1. Stir together the flour, baking powder, sugar & salt.
2. Combine the beaten egg, milk & melted butter.
3. Add the liquid mixture gradually to dry ingredients, stirring only until the batter is smooth.
4. Fold in the chopped apples. The batter will be very thick.
5. Drop the batter by generous tablespoons onto a hot, greased griddle, spreading to make the pancakes round. Allow plenty of cooking time as the pancakes are very thick.

Syrup:
1 Cup Light Corn Syrup
2 Cups Sugar
1/2 Cup Water
2 teaspoons Cinnamon
1 Cup Evaporated Milk

1. Mix together the corn syrup, sugar, water & cinnamon in a medium size sauce pan. Bring to a full boil over medium heat, stirring constantly for 2 more minutes.
2. Remove from heat and cool 5 minutes.
3. Slowly stir in the evaporated milk.

A little extra tip on this syrup is that I pour it over my yams at Thanksgiving too!

Peanut Butter Fingers II

I had posted recently about a treat I remember eating from my childhood days in elementary school. I had a similar recipe, but it wasn't quite what I remembered. Well, my friend Whitney came through for me! She happens to know someone who was a cook for Weber County School District and got me the official recipe from my childhood! I made them and they are sooooooo good...just the way I remember them.

1 Cup Sugar

1 Cup Brown Sugar

1 Cup Margarine or Butter

2 Eggs

1 Cup Peanut Butter

2 Cups flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon Salt

2 Cups Oats

1. Mix all ingredients and press in a large cookie sheet.
2. Bake at 350 F for 10 minutes. When crust is done, it should be soft to the touch and don't over-bake.
3. When crust is cool, spread a desired amount of peanut butter on top and then top it with chocolate frosting.

Kix Cookies

I went to a party tonight and Cherie (Ty's cousin) made these delicious cookies. I couldn't get enough of them. She gave me the recipe and they are soooo easy! They're along the sames lines as Rice Krispie Treats, but better! 1/2 Cup Light Karo Syrup
1/2 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Cream Peanut Butter
3 Cups Kix Cereal

In medium saucepan, bring Karo syrup and sugar to a hard boil. As soon as it boils, immediately remove from heat, add peanut butter and blend well. Stir in cereal, then drop by tablespoonfuls onto wax paper. Makes approximately 30.

Tip: She uses just a little less than 3 Cups of cereal so there's plenty of peanut butter! Yum-O!

Easy & Delicious Chicken

This is a really easy meal, especially when you don't have a lot of time, because it cooks in the crockpot. It's sort of like a chicken stroganoff. I always take this to neighbors when I make dinner for them. Everyone loves it.

6 Chicken Breasts
1 (8 oz.) Bottle Italian Salad Dressing
1 Can Cream of Chicken Soup
1 Cup Chicken Broth
1 (8 oz.) Package Cream Cheese
1/2 Teaspoon Basil, dried
1/2 Teaspoon Thyme, dried
Salt & Pepper, to taste
1 Package Bowtie Pasta

1. In a slow cooker, combine the chicken and italian dressing. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
2. When chicken is tender, drain most (not all) of the dressing and discard. Shred the chicken and return to slow cooker.
3. In a medium bowl combine the soup, broth, cream cheese, basil, thyme, salt and pepper.
4. Mix well and pour mixture over the chicken in the slow cooker.
5. Cook on low for 1 hour and serve over bowtie pasta (or any kind you like).

Easter Chick Nests

These are a perfect treat to make with the help of your kids. Hailee loved helping me make these. I always like to give credit where credit's due, but I got the idea for this out of a magazine and for the life of me, I can't remember which one. Have you ever heard of "moose poop" (or a more appropriate name is "oatmeal munchies")? Well, it's delicious and here's the recipe:

1/4 Cup Margarine or Butter
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/4 Cup Sugar
2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
1/4 Cup Milk
2 Tablespoons Baking Cocoa
Dash Salt
1/4 Cup Creamy Peanut Butter
1 1/2 Cups Oats
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/4 Cup Flour

1. Mix first 7 ingredients and bring to boil on medium heat. Boil for 1 minute.
2. Remove from heat and add remaining ingredients.
3. Stir until well mixed.
4. Using 2 teaspoons, drop small portions of mixture on cookie sheet lines with waxed paper. Allow to cool in refrigerator before eating.

So instead of dropping them onto a cookie sheet as you normally would, you drop them into muffin tins and form them against the bottom and sides of each tin to make a "nest". Put them in the fridge until you're ready to serve them, then pop them out of the pan and fill them up with robin eggs and top with a Peep! So cute!

This yields about 9 nests.

Easter Bunny Cake

We made some fun treats for Easter. My mom made this one. This is a really easy cake to make. You just cook a cake as you normally would in two round pans. When they're cooked and cooled, do this to one of them:
Then place the round cake in the center of a cookie sheet and use the two side sections from the cut cake for the ears and the middle section for the bowtie. Frost the cake white and the bowtie and center of the ears pink. Put coconut all over the round cake and ears for the fuzz and decorate the face and bowtie however you want. My mom used oreos, frosting and blue gumdrops for the eyes, licorice strings for the whiskers and mouth and gumdrops for the nose and the bowtie. Then she mixed some of the coconut with green food coloring to cover the cookie sheet and it looks like easter grass. (The missing gumdrops are because Hailee & Bryce got to the cake before I could get the picture). Isn't it cute?!

Iron Chef Part II

For dessert we made a fruit pizza. Everyone has a different recipe for this, but ours turned out really good. We used 2 pillsbury sugar cookie dough rolls, rolled them out onto a cookie sheet & cooked according to package directions. We mixed 8 oz. Cool Whip, 8 oz. Cream Cheese & 4 oz. Vanilla Yogurt. After the cookie cooled, we spread the mixture over the top. Then you can use your creativity. Top the entire cookie with an assortment of whatever fruits you like. We used raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, oranges, green apples, grapes, kiwi fruit & apricots. Then to make it shine, we brushed corn syrup thinned with a little lemon juice & juice from the canned apricots all over the fruits. Very pretty!

Iron Chef Part I

On Monday at work, we had a manager's retreat and did Iron Chef. It was so fun. My team was in charge of salad and dessert and the other team was in charge of the main dish and beverage. Our secret ingredient was fruit. The team that cooked at my house came up with this. And here I go with the method again, rather than the recipe.

Mix Mayonnaise with curry powder to taste. Cut up rotisserie chicken and mix with mayonnaise mixture. Serve over a bed of greens and top with coconut, toasted almonds and an assortment of tropical fruits. We used mango, pineapple and grapes (and just a couple strawberries for color). The salad would've been fine for a main dish in itself. It was delicious.

Peanut Butter Fingers

I love these. They remind me of the peanut butter fingers I used to get in elementary school. I think this particular recipe needs to be tweaked just a little bit, because I don't think it's the best it can be. I'm posting it because I do think they're definitely worth trying. However, if you make them and think you have a better recipe or you have found a way to make these a little better, leave a comment or email me at cookinbrooke@gmail.com.

3/4 Cup Butter
1/2 Cup Sugar
1 1/3 Cups Brown Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
3/4 Cup Creamy Peanut Butter
2 Eggs
2 Cups Flour
2 Cups Oats
3/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/8 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Cup Cream Peanut Butter, whipped
Chocolate Frosting

1. Cream together first 6 ingredients, then add next 4 ingredients.
2. Spread into butter jellyroll cookie sheet (12X7). Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.
3. While hot, spread with 1/2 whipped peanut butter. Cool or freeze to harden the peanut butter.
4. Frost with chocolate frosting.

Share your stuff!

I want all of you to share your recipes with me too and I can post them on here. So if you have a recipe or a cooking tip for me to post (or anything related to food), please email it to me at cookinbrooke@gmail.com. Thanks!

Orange Kisses

These are sooo good and sooo easy! Try them with your next dinner!

12 Frozen White Dinner Rolls (Rhodes Dough)
1/2 Cup Butter, softened
3 Tablespoons Orange Rinds, grated fresh
1 Cup Sugar

1. Allow dough to thaw.
2. Mix orange rind and sugar.
3. Coat each ball with softened butter, then roll in orange-sugar mixture.
4. Place in pan. Let rise until dough doubles, about one hour.
5. Bake at 350 degrees until just golden brown.

Poor Man's Queso

I was thinking that one of the problems for me on this blog is going to be the fact that I really don't have "recipes" for some of the things I come up with on my own. So I had a couple of choices. I was trying to decide if I should make each recipe and pay careful attention to how much I put into it so I can give you an exact recipe or I can just tell you the method and you can make it to your own taste. I liked the second idea better. Sometimes just learning a method rather than following a recipe makes it easier to be flexible and adjust things if you don't have the exact right ingredients. So, here's one of my favorite snacks. My sister-in-law, Trish, came up with the name tonight.

Take a couple of handfuls of whatever kind of cheese you like (I usually use cheddar) and put it in a saucepan over medium-high heat on the stove. Sprinkle in a bit of flour. This helps to both emulsify and thicken it. Pour in a little bit of milk and stir until it's melted. Rachael Ray would tell you it has to be stirred with a figure 8 (I'm not sure why, but I do it because she says so). Keep adding milk until it's at the desired consistency. Then throw in a can of your favorite chili. Mix together and serve with tortilla chips. It's delicious!

Brownie Cutting Tip

Ok, so this is the most helpful hint I've learned in the kitchen for awhile! Our friend Kirk taught us this trick and everyone needs to know it. You know when you cut brownies and the brownies churn up and all the insides come out and it turns into a big, huge mess? This is especially true when you can't wait for them to completely cool, which is certainly a problem of mine. Well, all you need to do is use a plastic, disposable knife to cut them and it cuts them perfectly smooth every time. Try it, it is amazing!

April Fool's

I made this April Fool's Day meal for Hailee. It came from Family Fun Magazine in the April issue, but I made a few changes based on what I had in my pantry.

It's supposed to look like fish sticks, sauce & peas. It is actually graham crackers covered in peanut butter & rolled in crushed up corn flakes, raspberry jam & green apple airheads rolled into little balls.

So certainly not the most healthy meal, but Hailee loved it. It was funny because she wouldn't eat the "peas" and we told her the joke and told her it was candy and she didn't believe us. Ty held them right up to her nose and told her to smell them. She said "It IS candy!?" and gobbled them right up, of course. :)

Dutch Babies

I thought I'd start with a breakfast food. I love these! This is a refreshing change from the typical breakfast foods. These were always my older brother's favorites growing up. Give them a try!

6 Eggs
1 Cup Milk
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup Butter
Lemon, Powdered Sugar & Maple Syrup

1. Combine the eggs, milk & salt in a blender. Blend the batter until fluffy.
2. Tap in the flour a little at a time, beating the ingredients until well blended.
3. Melt the butter in a 9X13 inch baking dish in a 425 degree oven. When the butter is bubbly, pour on the batter.
4. Immediately return the mixture to the oven. Bake at 425 degrees for 25 minutes.

Serve with a squeeze of lemon, a sprinkle of powdered sugar and some maple syrup. Yum!

My New Cookin' Blog

Those of you who know me, know that I have a passion for FOOD! The saying holds true for me that "some people eat to live and some people live to eat!" I wanted to start this blog to share recipes and cooking tips with anyone who wants to hear them. I have lot's of family favorites that have been passed down for generations and I want to always have them and be able to share them with others. I have recipes that I've gotten from others that are just quick and easy. I even have some that I've come up with myself. The recipes will always be pretty simple because I love to eat as fast as possible! So, I hope you all enjoy!