Christmas Candy!

Instead of our usual quick and easy fudge, this year I made THIS recipe for a twist on Peanut Butter Cups, from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. These are SOOO good!!

Just like she says, they are soo smooth and absolutely delicious! I poured mine into an 8x11 baking pan, instead of piping them into mini muffin cups, because as stated earlier, I only have a 12 cup pan...and that would take forever. *grin Then I cut them into bite size squareish shapes, and oh yes, we enjoyed!!

12 oz melted chocolate

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla  

I used 12 oz semi-sweet, Hershey's brand chocolate chips. I melted them in a pan on the stove, on very low heat (like 2 out of ...) and once the chips melted I added the pb, then the sugar and vanilla. I stirred it a long time and they turned out perfect!

~~~~~
These are made very similarly to the "fudge" I have made the last few years. I call it Darci's Fudge because my friend Darci gave me the recipe, and I don't know where she got it.

1 1/2 bags chocolate chips (semi-sweet or milk)
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
dash salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

In sauce pan, melt chips and condensed milk SLOWLY over very low heat on stove top. Add salt and vanilla when they start to get melty.
When its melted and smooth you can stir in nuts, pb chips, mini marshmallows, or broken up candy canes! YUM!!!
Pour into an 8x11 pan, lined with foil or plastic wrap. That way you can lift the whole thing out to cut the fudge into bars.

Christmas Cookies and Frosting

Does your neighborhood give treats at Christmastime? I do love that part of the holidays! Already we have gotten chocolate drizzled pretzels, hot cocoa, three kinds of fudge, three kinds of cookies, cupcakes and some pecan rolo turtle type treats I've seen on blogs! YUM! Neighbor gifts are also an excellent way to "get rid of" the extra cookies you have to make for Santa, haha!

In years past I have made different kinds of cookies, THIS popcorn and a yummy easy fudge which I will share tomorrow. This year I asked my kids if there is anything in particular they like at Christmas, or simply want to eat. lol! They both voted for cookies they can decorate! That's not exactly specific, beyond needing sprinkles, so I thought I'd try out a few new recipes I found online!

I made cookies using THIS recipe found one the Clover Lane blog.
ETA Recipe:

2 2/3 cup granulated brown sugar*

1 tsp salt

1 cup butter

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix sugar, salt and butter in a large mixing bowl. Beat eggs and vanilla into mixture until light and fluffy. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon, and gradually blend into sugar ingredents. Chill well. (about an hour at least). Roll dough out on well floured surface. Cut into shapes. 

Bake on lightly sprayed cookie sheets at 350* for 8-10 minutes.

*except I couldn't find granulated brown sugar. I used half granulated white sugar and half regular brown sugar.
I got 64 cookies with our cookie cutters. They're super easy to roll out and we all liked the taste of them a lot! Mine turned out flat, chewy and with crispy edges, like this:

(Christmas trees, snowmen, teddy bears, stars) and this:

My husband didn't love the idea of a glaze so I used our stand-by frosting recipe (found below), and the random assortment of sprinkles we had in the house. The kids had a blast cutting out the shapes, sneaking bits of dough and putting the sprinkles on! Looks like a merry Christmas!

Butter Frosting:

1/3 cup margarine or butter (I usually use margarine)

4 cups powdered sugar

1/4 tsp salt

2-3 Tbsp milk*

1 tsp vanilla

In large bowl cream margarine. Add remaining ingredients. Beat until frosting is smooth and of spreading consistency. If necessary, thin with additional milk.

Can frost 9x13 inch cake or 2-layer round cake

For chocolate butter frosting blend

1/3 cup cocoa powder

OR 2 envelopes pre-melted unsweetened baking chocolate flavor  

OR 2 squares (2 oz) melted unsweetened chocolate

into creamed margarine.

*This time I ended up using about 5 tbsp milk...I don't know why!! And it frosted all 64 cookies with a perfect thin layer.

Lasagna!

The first time I made lasagna, I used a pan to cook the sauce in, a bowl to mix the cheese in, a pan to cook the meat in and the crock pot to cook the meal in! Three of those dishes had to be washed by hand. I would rather do almost any other chore than wash dishes by hand, so I was less than impressed with this kind of a meal! LOL! After complaining on facebook about what a nightmare lasagna was, my friend pointed out she just throws a handful of this and that and calls it good. HMM. I suppose I could  give it another try.......!

So this time, I laid lasagna noodles along the bottom, sprinkled cooked hamburger meat over that, spread my uncooked sauce over that, dolloped ricotta cheese, and sprinkled Parmesan, mozzarella cheese, and did it again! That meant I only had to wash the meat pan by hand, and everything else was dishwasher-friendly! Yeay! Plus it was much faster to put together and no measuring mess either! And it turned out GREAT!

So, I used:

1 box lasagna noodles

1/2 lb ground beef, browned with ground black pepper and dehydrated onion

15 oz container ricotta cheese

few handfuls shredded mozzarella

sprinkles shredded Parmesan

basically my mom's spaghetti sauce, mixed in a bowl instead of on the stove

Sauce:

2 cans tomato sauce

oregano

basil

minced garlic

onion powder

sage

thyme

parsley

 

And cover the meal with foil, bake at 425* for 50 minutes, or until noodles are tender.

Make Your Own Mexican Wrap!

Friends are an excellent source of dinner ideas. One day a few months ago, my friend told me what they'd had for dinner the night before. I jotted this down: refried beans, salsa/black beans/ lime, brown rice, cheese, sour cream, avacado, wrapped in a tortilla! 

We finally got around to having it!
I started by microwaving one 10-inch flour tortilla for each of us, and set out the fillings!
We had brown rice, refried beans (with a good handful of shredded cheddar and a few tablespoons milk mixed in), ground beef with taco seasoning, shredded cheddar, shredded pepperjack cheese, salsa and sour cream! The kids could choose any protein and any dairy they wanted, and I served limade with it, instead of putting lime juice in with the rice or something...some members of my family don't like lime... 

Burger & Fries Casserole

Tonight was one of those nights I didn't want the food in my house but I wanted a good and quick dinner... I was perusing websites looking for something fast that I had all the ingredients for, lol, and THIS is what I found.

It was fast.
It was easy
and it was good!

On the side of that recipe link was a "what people are saying" box and I loved the ideas from "msuavacado". I combined the original recipe with this person's changes and here's what I came up with:

• 1 lb ground beef cooked with dehydrated onion/freshly ground black pepper, and drained
• 2 tbsp flour
• few big squirts ketchup
• about the same amount A1 as ketchup
• 3 drizzles worcestershire sauce

Put meat mix across bottom of casserole dish

• topped with shredded cheese,
• an even row of tator tots and
• a little shredded cheese on top of that.

baked at 425* for 20 minutes, 40 minutes.
served with carrot sticks!
It was a hit!

Next time I'll use the full 1.5 lbs of meat. maybe even more....
....make that 40 minutes. The tator tots in the middle were still frozen after 20 minutes today....

Pumpkin Donut Holes!

I found this recipe, at The Craving Chronicles in September and have been anxious to give it a try. I am not the biggest donut fan in the world, but I do like pumpkin treats and these sounded fabulous. WOW, it is sooooo yummy!! It was also very easy, especially if you have enough mini muffin pans (or have great friends willing to loan you theirs!). I did a double batch because I needed to make a birthday treat, and wanted enough for my family to enjoy some too. Um...pretty sure my family could have eaten all 84 without help! LOL!

Here they are, right out of the oven! ...these look huge...this pan is only 8x10 inches big, from edge to edge! haha!

 There's the melted butter* and cinnamon/sugar mixture...

 and here's a whole delicious plateful, waiting to be devoured!

*actually, it is melted margarine. We do have butter, but when I can get 1lb margarine for $1.8something and the same amount of butter is $3.8something.....yeah, we use margarine around here unless its something important.

Caramel Apples!

I DO have some 'real food' photo'd and prepped but today we made these, using the instructions found HERE. It was pretty easy but rather messy... *wink

And my photos are not ah-mazing because it is night and they must be devoured! (I mean, who doesn't need a ton of sugar right before bed the night before Halloween?)

So we started with this: a bag of caramels, unwrapped by the helper team, and two apples for each of us!

Then, we rolled some apples in crushed oreos and some in a smashed-to-bits butterfinger bar! I melted some chocolate chips mixed with a bit of shortening and attempted to drizzle it over some of the apples.

 voila! My husband wanted them plain, I wanted both with butterfinger and chocolate and the kids wanted one butterfinger, one oreo, and all chocolate! *grin

In spite of all the work, I will be slicing mine. There's no way I can take a bite out of that! LOL!

apple cider floats!

Earlier this week I took my kids to the local pumpkin patch, where we always get some fresh apple juice and apple cider doughnuts. The juice is not clear and I always thought it was cider. So today I picked up some ginger ale, vanilla bean ice cream and we made THIS.

Ohhhh yummm!!!
Yes, really, you MUST make this!
This is mine! 

And in case the recipe is ever removed from the link: 

1 cup apple cider
1/2 cup ginger ale
1-2 scoops vanilla ice cream, or any seasonal flavor such as cinnamon or apple pie
ground cinnamon and nutmeg for sprinkling
1-2 tablespoons jarred caramel sauce

Pour apple cider and ginger ale into a glass.  Add vanilla ice cream.  Sprinkle on nutmeg and cinnamon to taste and drizzle caramel sauce on top.  Serve immediately with a straw and a spoon.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread!

Between my husband and I, we've found a lot of yummy food ideas and blogs in the last little while. This recipe comes from Mel's Kitchen Cafe blog, which my husband found. Oh. my. YUM! And this is our first recipe we're trying from it! Can I just say how wonderful my house smells?? Even tho it snowed at our house a week and a half ago, today it's back up to 70* today and maybe just a bit too warm for the wonderful smells of autumn, but ohhh they are the best food smells and I am ready for autumn baking!

Here's the wet and dry ingredients just starting to be mixed....

first yummy slice.......! mmmmmmmmmm!

My slice was still a little warm, but according to Mel it's even better the next day and that its great for breakfast!! Looking forward to it! haha!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, I have to say...

I ran into a snag. or, created one, is the thing. I've been working hard to do better and lose a little weight so when I read this recipe and saw that it called for a cup of vegetable oil I decided to substitute with 1/2 cup applesauce and 1/2 cup oil. Healthier, maybe. easy to get out of the loaf pan in one piece? nope.
I used this scraper around the edges of the pan and also tried to go under the loaf a little. Annnd when most of the loaf came out, I left it upside down, scraped the rest out and laid it back on the bread like it was supposed to be.

lesson learned.
leave the recipe alone and eat it anyway! *grin!*

"Sweet" Pork Barbacoa

Yes, this is extremely similar to THIS recipe.
The meat was done exactly the same, except with 1/4 cup, 1/2 cup brown sugar.

This time we did a black bean mixture.

And the rice was just lime rice....1/2 cup dry rice, 1 cup water, 1 tbsp lime juice, cooked til done!

But this time! We put meat, beans and rice all into the tortilla, wrapped it up burrito style, stuck it in a baking pan, smothered it with about half a can of enchilada sauce and a bunch of cheese! Then we had corn on the side. Quite tasty!

bottling salsa!

We tried a brand new recipe to bottle 19 pints of fresh salsa! ...I hope its good!!! LOL! The recipe came from HERE and our edits (you knew that was coming...) were:

• leave out the sugar,
• used 1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper, instead of a tsp 
• add 3 tbsp of chili powder
• 1 cup lemon juice and 1 cup lime juice instead of choosing one.

Also, I started out squeezing the tomatoes with my hand and removing seeds, but that was a little ridiculous and time consuming for me, so I quit. You can see below that juice and seeds come out on their own, no need to work harder, haha. My favorite tip from that recipe link is that they put their cutting board into a cookie sheet, to keep the tomato juice contained. best. idea. ever! LOL!

cooking/reducing the salsa...

and here's the finished product!! Yeay!

It is a smooth? juicy? sauce, more than a salsa because we pureed the tomatoes with a stick blender before adding anything else. That's my fault...I don't like eating a bite of onion with my chips... lol! And my husband spoils me!

Yvette's Corn

If you have fresh corn on the cob still, or a local farmers market that does, here's a cool tip from my friend Yvette that I forgot to share when it was still summer...

I baked my corn the other night. Put a few slabs of butter in some tin foil, added garlic powder to 1, fresh basil leaves to another and paprika to the other, wrapped them up and threw them in the 425 oven for 25 minutes. The basil and garlic ones were sooo good. I would have done fresh garlic if I had any.

Of COURSE I gave it a try, but put it all in one packet and just added garlic.

Very tasty and something I don't usually have- garlicked corn? 

Yvette's Chicken Salad

I saw a recipe for a chicken salad and decided I wanted to make one. After much discussion with my friend Yvette, this is what I ended up doing. And since most of it was her ideas, she gets the credit!

First, I made the Chicken Salad....
3/4 cup red/purple grapes, sliced in half or third
2/3 cup cashews sliced to tiny bits
1 12.5 oz canned chicken, drained, rinsed and cut finer than it comes
1/2 large granny smith apple, diced
2 stalks celery, sliced tiny
2 heaping spoonfuls miracle whip (a little more than 1/3 cup)
few grinds of black pepper

Then, I shredded some iceburg lettuce to bite size pieces in a bowl and drizzled with a mixture of olive oil and lemon juice. I mixed it in a measuring cup and by using more juice than oil, I had about 1/4 cup liquid, and with enough lettuce to serve three of us, I used maybe half the liquid. I mixed the lettuce and dressing together and put it on the plate, then a scoop of the chicken salad on top of that. Served it with a slice of cornbread and there was dinner! mmmmmmm!

(sorry for the lousy picture- it was late and dark...)

6/12/18 ETA: Most of the time we eat it on toasted bread as a sandwich and it is delicious!

Healthy little snacky-lunch!

ETA: I made it again and this time I took pictures!

I recently became a facebook "fan" of Walmart's Meal Solutions. This means that once a day they post some kind of budget-stretcher kind of meal. The other day they posted a snack that I had for lunch today! If this works, you can see the picture HERE. (altho you may need to scroll back to September 14)

You'll need 2 tortillas (whole wheat would taste better...), peanut butter, honey, and either a pear or granny smith apple*. That's it!

Spread the peanut butter all over the tortilla. Chop your apple or pear like french fries...long and thin, not slices. Lay them across the tortilla, running long ways, but sort of along a side. Drizzle with honey, wrap it up and ENJOY!

The recipe said to serve it with yogurt so I had a cup of yogurt with the apple wraps and water for lunch. It was just the right amount of food and so tasty!

*I used a granny smith apple because that's what I had. The recipe calls for pears. I don't think it matters much. :)

Banana Cake

Earlier this summer our neighborhood had a potluck dinner and our neighbor Jordan brought this cake. My husband had to work that night, but I saved him a little food since that was our dinner! We both loved this cake and had to get the recipe...but should a family of four eat a whole sheet cake?? Family reunions are great places to share good food, so this was our dessert contribution:

Banana Cake:
2 1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup sour cream
3/4 cup margarine
3 eggs
3 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 1/4 cup mashed bananas (around 3-5)
3 cups flour

Combine all ingredients and pour into an un-greased* sheet pan. Bake at 375* for 20 minutes. Cool completely and frost with the following:

Cream Cheese Frosting:
       (with a note that she doubles this, so I did too!)
1/2 stick margarine
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1 tsp vanilla
powdered sugar

Combine all ingredients, beat until creamy. Add enough powdered sugar to make the consistency of frosting. (I used about 3 cups) Cut cake into bars and serve!

It was a hit at the potluck, it was a hit at the reunion! YUM!

* I had a hard time believing it would come out of an un-greased sheet pan, so I went ahead and greased the pan with crisco. As the cake baked it pulled away from the sides of the pan, and you can see very, very little stuck. I'm sure it would come out of an un-greased pan, but do what you like.
** If you travel with it, frost it after you arrive!

ETA: 
- This makes a lot of batter. It's too much for my large mixing bowl and it is a bit too much even for my mixer. Also, maybe mix the butter with the sugar first because otherwise you end up with a block of butter thudding around the mixture... 

- I also added 6-7 minutes to the baking time in 2024. 

Summer Salad!

When I got married, my MIL gave me a few recipes. One was labeled "Favorite Summer Salad". The thing is, I am allergic to half the ingredients and hey, my husband loves to cook. So I had never made this until Sunday. We decided to make it because it feeds a lot of people and a family reunion lunch is a great time to feed a lot of people, lol. And since the kids don't like it and I can't eat it, he doesn't get it very often. This time he got to keep what was left.

Ingredients: (for this batch)
1 head cabbage, diced?
2 cucumbers, cut into 6ths and sliced thinly (about 6 inches long, about 1.5 inches diameter)
2 green bell peppers diced
6 roma tomatoes, diced
1 onion, finely chopped
1 cup miracle whip (approx)
salt & pepper

First, you cut the cabbage into very small pieces, put it all in a big bowl and use about 2 tsp salt and let it rest for half an hour or so, while you cut the other ingredients. After the veggies are all cut, mix it up, add the miracle whip and a little freshly ground black pepper and mix completely. Chill and let the flavors blend- enJOY!

Harvest Season!

While its true * I * do not have a garden, I am the happy recipient of other people's garden surplus! A friend had given us some zucchini and due to a week full of migraines I hadn't had a chance to use it the way I like! (more to come on that later!) This meant I needed to find a new way to get my children to eat it. Those Betty Crocker emails come in handy! I found a recipe for a Zucchini Tomato Skillet Dinner HERE. Funny thing was that the same friend gave me tomatoes when I asked if I could use a can of stewed tomatoes to make the dinner! Nice that she contributed half our dinner that night!

Edits this time primarily come from not reading the instructions....LOL! I did use dehydrated onion, and then instead of waiting til the end for the chopped fresh tomato, I put that in with Step 2. Whoops. Its okay, it was still great.

Marshmallows, again!

This idea came from my friends blog HERE.
We have now done this three times and two different ways....
Her recipe is simply spread peanut butter on a ritz cracker, set it on the pan, stick a marshmallow on top and put it under the broiler for a few minutes.

That is soooo yummy!!!
But today, for our first-day-back-to-school treat I used nutella instead of peanut butter!!!
EVEN better!!!!

Butter Dip Biscuits

I am sure there is a grammatical problem with the title of this recipe, but it is a recipe of my great-grandmother's, who was born to farmers in 1887. So, it is what it is, and it is GOOD.

These are great with spaghetti, soup, whatever you need biscuits with! This round, it was a soup.

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cup sifted flour
1 Tbsp sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1/3 cup butter (or margarine is okay)

Heat oven to 450*. cut butter into pats and place all over baking pan like this:

Mix dry ingredients and milk in a bowl,

and then move to counter top to knead a bit, and roll out to about 1/2 an inch thick. Cut into strips like this:

dip into butter (smother both sides of the biscuit-which is why it is melted all over the pan you're using)

and bake 14-20 minutes.
tada!

my husband likes them with jam, I just like to dip them in whatever we're eating, like the soup...

Quick Treat!

The other night my husband was looking for some kind of treat. I had just bought a bag of regular marshmallows and the coconut covered ones -since my daughter has been begging me all summer for them...! He decided to melt down some chocolate baking chips that are meant for melting into like a chocolate fountain or something. He dipped the marshmallows til the melted chocolate was gone and we had about a cookie sheet full! He let them set up in the fridge for 15 minutes and they were ready! MMMM!

When things don't quite go right...

Here's a new way of making lemonade out of life's lemons. haha!

I recently volunteered to take dinner to a family who was moving, and I was also supposed to make two treats for a baby shower the next day. I thought No Bake Cookies would be great since I only stand over a hot stove for a few minutes and don't use the oven at all. Perfect!
...only. ...the cookies were still not set after about two hours. hmm....
I had made a nice, big double batch so that my family got some, along with all the sharing...and it was like picking up oatmeal.
what. was I supposed to do with a big old mixing bowl full of chocolatey oatmeal???

I called my husband {the foodie} to see if he had any ideas and he said "sure, throw in some eggs, flour and baking powder and bake them."
...Really? you can do that??

Yup. Guess ya can!
Behold! Baked No Bake Cookies!

They taste much more like oatmeal cookies than No Bake cookies, and they are quite flat. I added the following before baking:
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup flour
and baked them about 12 minutes each pan.

Also, I only put about a tbsp of batter on the pan and some spread to be as much as 3 inches across...!

Meatloaf from meat balls!

Remember my meatballs post? I really like those meatballs. My kids both like them now too. We have eaten them at least once a month since that first post, sometimes much more often. I've made them for my parents at least three times, and we actually don't have a nice dinner together all that often! lol!

Well. it is hot here, and I am very, very busy (as so many of us are) and I didn't want to take the time to shape out a bunch of meatballs. I just wanted to eat it. I asked my husband-the-cook if the mixture could be made into a meatloaf..? (my mom didn't make meatloaf one single time until after I was married so this is not a staple I grew up with. but since I do love those meatballs, I bet I'd like the meatloaf just as well...!) He thought it absolutely could, so that is what I did!

Since we used to watch Good Eats every night (until food network got so competition-heavy), I had vague memories of AB not liking square pans because casseroles get dry corners and uncooked centers...and something about dry meatloaf being bad...so I put the meat into a foil lined loaf pan for the first 45 minutes...

and then I turned it out into a rounded baking dish,smothered it in sauce and let it bake that way for the last 15 minutes. I added the extra five minutes to make extra sure the meat in the middle was totally cooked (I like my cows goooood and dead thanks).

As far as meatloaf goes, it was perfect! But it turns out I like the sauce in all three bites of meatloaf and unless you have the end slice, its hard to get the sauce in every bite. But that's okay, it was quicker, less messy and soo tasty!

While I'm on the subject, I should mention the alterations that my-husband-the-cook made to the meat mixture. He added minced garlic, Worcestershire sauce and a drop or two of liquid smoke. He might have changed up a couple other things, but at this moment I don't know what... if I think of them I will add them, so feel free to check back!

Barbacoa Pork

Sunday was one of those days we'd managed to run out of grocery staples. That meant it was time to get creative for dinner, and my husband did an awesome job!! Doesn't this look dreamy good??

He started with the meat that is wrapped inside that tortilla. Here's what he did....
Thaw 2 lbs of boneless, country-style pork ribs. Put about a quart of water in a large pot and add the following:
2 tbsp taco seasoning
1 8oz can tomato sauce
3 tbsp minced garlic
1 large bay leaf
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar OR red wine vinegar OR apple cider vinegar
1 tsp hot sauce paste OR 1 tbsp liquid hot sauce

Boil/simmer until liquid is reduced to 1/4 volume, and has become a good thick sauce, and pork can be shredded and falls apart.
Remove the meat and shred, then return it to the sauce until meat is completely coated.
So that's the meat filling, which we put into a tortilla, topped it with cheese and rolled/folded it up burrito style.
~~~~~~~~~~
Then he made a side dish of honey lime rice:
Put a pat of butter into the pan and toast the dry rice. Then add the water, boil/cook til the rice is done. He drizzled on a little lime juice and a little honey, and a dash of the rice wine vinegar. Use way less than you think!
~~~~~~~~~~
And a side dish of refried beans.... which are simply a can of refried beans dumped into a pot, and add a tbsp or two of milk and a small handful of cheese, and heat through!
~~~~~~~~~~
The burrito was then smothered in enchilada sauce and some cheese, cheese on top of the beans, and it went under the broiler for about 3-4 minutes. And came out looking like this:

oh yes. it was THAT good!

Nacho Skillet Dinner

I'm sorry there's been a lack of posts...it was really cold all spring and it just turned really hot so I don't really want to stand at the stove or use the oven. Not to mention the summer festivities and everything going on! But tonight I made a real dinner (hee hee) and tried a new recipe that we think is a keeper!

here's what it looked like:

and the recipe can be found HERE.

of *course* there are edits! :) For one thing, I didn't like the idea of putting the chips in the pan while it simmered....that sounded like they'd get soggy and I really don't care for soggy chips. So we ate the dinner as a dip, which always makes my kids eat better. Also, I will use black beans next time, instead of kidney beans. And my husband added salsa and sour cream to his. All in all? its a keeper!

Edited 10/14/12:
We had some left overs of this mixture and we were out of chips. So I made a quesadilla out of it!

Just laid down a flour tortilla, spread the mix on it, sprinkled it with more cheese, topped it with another quesadilla and there was dinner!

Boiled-Raisin Oatmeal Cookies

This is one of my husband's favorite treats his mom would make when he was a kid. He made them once before and then again this weekend. So here's the recipe, photo and my notes/thoughts!
~~~~
2 cups Sugar
4 cups rolled oats
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
4 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups shortening
1 1/2 cups raisins
2 3/4 cup flour

Preheat oven to 350*.
Boil raisins in 2 cups water with 1 tsp soda for five minutes. Drain raisin water into a 2 cup measuring cup (add, if necessary enough water to make 1 cup liquid). Pour raisin water into a small pan and add shortening to it so it becomes all liquid. Remove from heat and pour into mixing bowl. Allow it to cool to a warm state and add sugar, oats, flour, spices and salt. Beat eggs and add them, and raisins. Mix well.
Drop large teaspoonfull on greased cookie sheet.
Bake 15 mins or until browned.

~~~~~
I have no idea why some ended up all flat and spread out and other stayed snug and in a ball...they were put on the pan exactly the same!
I must add that we ran out of raisins after about 1 cup worth so he topped it off with craisins. He also put in 1/2 a cup or so of chocolate chips this time, which were a really nice touch.
They are sooo good warm, straight out of the oven!! The ones we put in the cookie jar stayed super soft, moist and crumble very easily. I like them firmer so I'm leaving the rest on the counter.

Ants on a Log!

Here's a quick and healthy little snack, perfect for summer!

just cut some celery stalks, fill it with peanut butter and stick little raisins on for ants!
(one of my kids don't really like ants....)

Waffles!

This recipe comes straight out of the Betty Crocker cook book, except tonight I remembered a variation! The recipe I have is this:

2 eggs
2 cups buttermilk (or soured milk)
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp shortening or vegetable oil

Heat waffle iron. Beat eggs, beat in remaining ingredients until smooth. Pour batter onto hot waffle iron, bake about 5 minutes, remove carefully.
Makes about eight 7-inch waffles

But! You can also toss in a soft banana! or tonight's version- 1/4 cup of apple sauce!
We have a small Belgian waffle maker (two squares - size) and it takes 4.5 minutes to look like this: