Peanut Butter Blossoms

• 1/2 c. shortening
• 1/2 c. peanut butter
• 1/2 c. packed brown sugar
• 1/2 c. granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 Tbsp. milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 3/4 c. flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• extra sugar
• 1 bag of Hershey's kisses

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Cream shortening, peanut butter, brown sugar and 1/2 c. sugar. Add egg, milk and vanilla. Mix well.

Stir together flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to creamed mixture. Beat on low speed until stiff dough form. Shape into 1-inch balls. Roll in sugar and place on cookie sheet

Bake 10-12 minutes. Top each cookie immediately with a Hershey's kiss pressing down firmly so it cracks on the edges.

Easy Easy Fudge

I haven't posted anything on this blog for a while, so I decided that I would post all the recipes for the goodies I made and will give out today. I've made quite a few so look for more to come. This is probably the easiest fudge I have ever made. Three ingredients and a microwave. Here's what you need:

3 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 c. butter

Put all the ingredients in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for periods of 2 minutes stirring after each is over and doing this until the mixture is nice and smooth.

Spray an 8x8 baking dish really well and pour the mixture into it. Put into the refrigerator to let it set.

You can also double this recipe and put it in a 9x13 baking pan. I was going to do that when I made these last night but only had enough chips for one batch.

BBQ Chicken Wraps

4 or 5 chicken breasts cut into strips

1/3 - 1/2 c. BBQ sauce

Green and red bell peppers, sliced

Tortillas, warmed

shredded cheese

After your peppers have been sliced, cook them until they are tender. Add the strips of chicken and continue to cook until chicken is no longer pink. Add barbeque sauce and you can really put in however much you would like. Mix well, and cook another 15 minutes or until chicken is done. Spoon chicken mixture onto tortilla and top with cheese roll up and cut in half. These are so easy to make and they are a big hit with my family. My kids like to dip theirs in ranch.

Brady showing his approval

Source: Kraft food and family magazine

Chocolate Trifle

1 pkg. chocolate cake mix

2 pkg. chocolate pudding mixed up

1 tub cool whip

1 bag toffee chips

1 jar caramel sauce

Make chocolate cake in a 9 x 13 inch baking pan; let cool. Cut cake into small cubes.

Put a layer of cake on the bottom of the trifle bowl. Squish them in so the bottom is covered.

After making both packages of the pudding spoon half of it over the cake in trifle bowl. Add half of the cool whip on top of the pudding and then cover with a layer of caramel sauce and toffee bits. Repeat layers and refrigerate until ready to eat.

Black Devil Cupcakes

3 c. flour

1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 c. cocoa

2 c. sugar

1 tsp. salt

2 c. water

2 tsp. vanilla

1/4 c. oil

Filling

8 oz. cream cheese

1 egg

1/4 c. sugar

1/2 c. chocolate chips

In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa, sugar and salt. Add water, vanilla and oil. Mix well. Line muffin pan with cupcake liners. Spoon 2 Tbsp. batter into each cup. Combine the cream cheese, egg, sugar and chocolate chips. Spoon 1 Tbsp. filling in center of each cup. Bake at 350 F. for 20 minutes.

These cupcakes are so yummy and if you wanted to you could even pour the batter into a cake pan and drop the filling into it to make a cake instead of cupcakes.

Connecticut Dinner

Stew meat or round steak

1 large onion, chopped

3/4 tsp. garlic powder

3 beef bouillon cubes

3 c. water

flour to coat meat

1/2 c. sour cream

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1/2 c. milk

2 Tbsp. margarine

4 medium potatoes

1 Tbsp. oil

Coat meat with flour-brown in oil. Add chopped onion, garlic powder, beef bouillon and water. Simmer together for 40 minutes. Pour into 9 x 13 inch glass pan. Mix together soup, milk, margarine and sour cream. Peel and slice potatoes. Cover meat mixture with potatoes. Pour soup mixture over potatoes. Cover with foil. Bake for 1 1/2 hours at 325 degrees.

Granola

I remember having this granola growing up and it was so good. My mom would always tell us to just get a little bit because once we added milk it would grow and we would never finish our bowl. I remember a lot of times I didn't listen and it took me forever to eat my bowl of granola. So word of the wise when eating this don't put too much in your bowl if you have it with milk it expands.

10 c. regular oats

1 c. oconut

2 c. roasted sunflower seeds

1 c. sesame seeds

2 c. nuts

1 c. powdered milk

1 1/2 c. brown sugar

1 1/2 c. water

1 1/2 c. oil
1/2 c. honey

1/2 c. molasses

1 1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon

3 tsp. vanilla

Combine first 6 ingredients in large bowl. In saucepan, combine sugar, water, oil, honey, molasses, salt, cinnamon and vanilla. Heat until sugar is dissolved. Pour sugar mixture over dry ingredients. Stir until well coated. Spread in pans. Bake 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Bake 15 minutes longer if cruchier texture desired. Cool. Add raisins or other dried fruit if desired. Store in covered container. Enjoy. It's very good with cheerios as well as strawberries.

Poor Man Steak

This is a recipe that I got from a cookbook that I've maybe opened a total of five times in five years of marriage. We got it when we got married along with a bunch of other ones so I didn't always look for recipes in it. The cookbook is called the 4 ingredient cookbook. Every recipe in the book takes only four ingredients. Something good in this economy because you don't need a ton of ingredients to make a dish.

I tried this dish a while ago and we absolutely loved it. But the big thing to remember is that the hamburger needs to be very lean or it doesn't taste very good. I made it again tonight and Blake wanted to have mashed potatoes with it and it was a perfect fit. I hope everyone enjoys this dish as much as my family does.

3 lbs. lean hamburger

1 c. cracker crumbs

1 c. water

1 pkg. dry onion soup mix

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix the hamburger, cracker crumbs, water and soup mix together. Shape into patties and brown in sauce pan. After patties have been browned, put into a baking dish and cover with cream of mushroom soup. Cover; cook for 1 hour.

Taffy Apple Tartlets

These are some yummy apple treats that I had planned on making for a pampered chef show but things didn't work out and I wasn't able to make them. However, I still wanted to try them because they looked so good. They were really easy to make and they seriously taste like apple pie. This is a recipe I got from pampered chef.

1/4 cup dry-roasted peanuts

2 large Granny Smith apples, peeled

3/4 cup butterscotch caramel sauce, divided

2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour

1 pkg. refrigerated pie crusts (2 crusts), softened according to package directions

12 caramels, unwrapped

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Unwrap caramels.

Coursely chop the peanuts; set aside for later use. Cut peeled apples lengthwise into quarters. Lay each quarer cut side down; angle knife, cut out and discar core (or just use an apple corer). Corsely chop apples. Combine apples, 1/2 cup of the caramel sauce and flour in a microwave-safe bowl; mix well. Microwave apple mixture on high 5-6 minutes or until bubbling and thickened; stir and set aside.

Unroll one pie crust onto lightly flour cutting board. Spacing closely together cut 12 disks from the crust. There should be nine on the outside and three in the center. Press disks into wells of a mini muffin pan with either a mini-tart shaper or your fingers, and ruffle the edges as you do. Repeat with remaing crust.

Cut caramels in half; place one piece into each tart shell. Spoon apple mixture evenly into tart shells; sprinkle with peanuts. Bake 14-16 minutes or until edges of tartlets are golden brown. Remove tartlets from pan onto a cooling rack. Drizzle with remaining 1/4 cup caramle sauce. These are really good served warm.

Family-Friendly Chicken Enchiladas

I love enchiladas and these were very easy to make and they turned out great. This was my first time making these and we will definitely be having them again.

3 cups cooked and shredded chicken

2 cans cream of chicken soup, condensed

1 cup sour cream

1 can diced green chiles, drained

1/4 cup dried minced onion

2 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese, divided

10 medium flour tortillas

1/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine chicken, 1 can soup, sour cream, chiles, onion, and 1 1/2 cups of cheese. Fill tortillas with 1/3 to 1/2 cup chicken mixture. Roll filled tortillas and place seam sice down in greased 9x13 inch pan. Combine remaining soup withh milk and spread over tortilla rolls. Sprinkle remaining cheese over top. Cover and bake 25 minutes. Uncover and bake 5-10 minutes more, or until heated through. Makes 6-8 servings.

I got this recipe out of the cookbook, "101 things to do with a casserole"

Cinnamon pull-apart bread

These are super easy to make and really good. They were gone in about three days at my house. I got this recipe from the website kraftfoods.com they have some really good recipes.

2 cans refrigeratedbuttermilk biscuits

3/4 c. granulated sugar

1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 stick (1 stick) butter or margarine, melted

4 oz. (1/2 of 8 oz. pkg.) cream cheese, softened

1/2 c. powdered sugar

1 - 2 Tbsp. milk

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cut each biscuit into quarters. Mix granulated sugar and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Add dough quarters, in batches; toss to coat. Place 1/2 the biscuit pieces in greased fluted tube pan; drizzle with 1/2 the butter. Repeat. Sprinkle with any remaining cinnamon/sugar. Bake 40-45 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean and top is golden brown. Cool in pan for 5 minutes; invert onto serving plate. Remove pan.

Beat cream cheese and powdered sugar in small bowl with mixer until well blended. Add 1 Tbsp. milk; beat until well blended. Blend in enough of the remaining milk until glaze is of desired consistency. Drizzle over warm bread.

Banana Bread

1/3 c. shortening

1/2 c. sugar

2 eggs

1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 c. ( 2 medium) mashed ripe bananas

Place shortening and sugar in mixer bowl. Turn mixer on at high speed and beat for about 1 minute. Stop and scrape bowl. Continue mixing on high about 1 minute longer. Add eggs. Turn on to medium speed and beat for about 30 seconds. Stop and scrape bowl. Turn back on high and beat for 1 1/2 minutes.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in separate bowl. Add half of flour mixture and half of mashed banana to mixer bowl. Turn mixer on low speed and mix about 30 seconds. Add remaining flour and banana. Stop and scrape bowl.

Pour mixture into greased and floured 9x5x3 inch baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Cool 5 minutes in pan. Remove pan and cool completely on wire rack.

I got this recipe from my Kitchen Aid recipe book that came with my mixer.

Manicotti

Manicotti is one of my all-time favorite dishes to both make and eat. The funniest thing about it is that no matter how many times I make it, it turns out different. Sometimes it's runny and other times it's a little thicker.

1 boxManicotti pasta shells

1 container cottage cheese

1 1/2 c. cheese ( I prefer cheddar)

your choice of spaghetti sauce - desired amount

Cook the manicotti shells for 7 minutes. Meanwhile, mix cottage cheese and your choice of cheese together. Drain manicotti and lay out to dry on pan. Spread a little amount of spaghetti sauce in bottom of 9x13 inch baking dish. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stuff manicotti shells with cheese mixture and lay in pan. If there is any of the cheese mixture left over sprinkle over manicotti and top with desired amount of sauce. Cove with foil and bake for 45 minutes.

Rigatoni

1 lb. turkey sausage
1 lb. ground turkey
1 pkg. rigatoni noodles
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 1/2 cans of spaghetti sauce
desired amount of cheese

Desired amount:
Garlic salt or powder
Minced garlic
Oregano
Basil

My husband puts this together and unlike me he just adds whatever he think it needs and doesn't meaure. So hopefully you can make it taste as good as he does.

Brown turkey with minced garlic. Boil noodles. Add sauce to meat, add spices. Mix sauce into noodles. Put in 9x13 inch baking pan and cover with cheese. Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Enjoy.

Potatoes Supreme

8 - 10 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 can cream of chicken soup
3 c. shredded cheese
1 c. sour cream
1/2 c. onion, chopped

Cook potatoes. Combine soup, 1 1/2 cups cheese, sour cream, onions and salt and pepper to taste; stir in potatoes. Place in greased 9x13 inch baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

This was the first time that I made this and I think it turned out really great. We will definitely be having it again.

Creamy Chicken and Rice

2 c. uncooked white rice

2 cans cream of chicken soup, condensed
2 c. water

1 envelope onion soup mix, divided

4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a bowl, combine rice, chicken soup, water, and half the onion soup mix. Spread mixture into a greased 9x13 inch pan. Lay chicken over top. Sprinkle remaining onion soup mix over chicken. Cover and back 2 hours. Makes 4-6 servings.

*Can also be baked at 300 degrees for 3 hours.

I got this recipe from: 101 Things to do with a casserole.

This was the first time I had tried this and it wasn't too bad. I will definitely make it again except for next time I will add the water in the right place. I forgot about adding the water and didn't remember until it had been cooking for over an hour. I also used cream of celery soup instead of cream of chicken but it didn't really make much of a difference. I think this casserole would be good with cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup, or cream of celery. Here are some pictures of the final product.

My new Blog

I decided to start this blog because I've been in the process of working on a recipe book to give to family and friends. I do better at putting things in a blog then I am at writing down the recipe. So hopefully I'll be able to keep up with my new recipes. I hope that those of you who read this blog will try these recipes out and leave comments for me. Stay tuned for my first recipe.