Pumpkin Soup

I thought this was an appropriate October recipe! I really love it and it's way easy to make. I serve it with scones or rolls. My youngest son ate 3 bowls full then climbed in my lap and asked for mine!

2 tbsp butter

1 small onion, finely chopped

5 cups of chicken broth or you can use 5 cups of water and 4 chicken bullion cubes

1 tsp salt

1 (1 pound) can pumpkin, or 1 little pie pumpkin just peel the skin off and steam it like you would squash or zucchini before adding it to the soup.

optional: if you want thicker soup you can add 2 potatoes

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Dash of pepper

Dash of nutmeg

Dash of cloves

Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan and cook the onion until soft. Add the broth, salt & pepper, nutmeg & cloves. Bring to a boil. Add the pumpkin (and potatoes if you choose), combine thoroughly, lower the heat and simmer, covered for 45 minutes. Add the cream and heat through For a creamier texture I then blend the soup in my blender, but you don't have to.

The Great Salad

So this has a cheesy name, but there's no better name for it! =) This stuff is so so good I think. Kind of a lot of steps, but it's worth it!

nickel-sized bunch of spaghetti - break in half, boil, rinse in cold water

1/2 head cabbage - chopped

1/2 head lettuce - chopped

1 carrot - grated

3/4 C frozen peas (strain w/ hot water)

1 bunch green onion

1/2 cucumber - cut in bite sizes

1 tomato

1/2 C grated motz cheese

handful of broccoli

handful of cauliflower

(I double the recipe for the dressing, so that's why there's some weird measurements. I don't know how to convert them!) =)

Dressing:

1/2 C sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 C milk

1 C mayo

3 Tbsp vinegar

5 tsp lemon juice

4 Tbsp sour cream

2 tsp mustard

1/2 tsp horse radish

1/4 garlic pwd

1 C parm cheese

Bake and slice breaded chicken and put in on!

Yum yum!

Breakfast Ideas, Anyone?

Anyone with good breakfast ideas, please share! My husband won't eat breakfast, I have no desire to make a nice one if he's not going to eat, but my kids still must eat breakfast and so I need ideas. I cannot for the life of me convince them to eat eggs, so we do waffles and pancackes a lot. Any suggestions???

Crockpot BBQ Ribs

I wish my camera chip wasn't full, or I would have a beautiful picture to post as well. Oh well! These ribs are really easy and really, really good.

3 racks of ribs or 2-3 pounds of pork (ribs are better, if you've got a COSTCO anywhere near you they have the best price on ribs and their meat is fantastic.)

Steak Spice (McCormick's Montreal or Grill Mate brands are both good)

salt & pepper

garlic powder

veg. oil

Red wine vinegar

1 bottle Baby Ray's sweet BBQ sauce

Seer pork in a frying pan for 2-3 minutes each side to keep the juices in. Put in your crock pot. Dash of salt & pepper & garlic powder. Add 1/4 cup vegetable oil, 1 cup water, 2 tbsp. red wine vinegar. Cook on low for 5 hours or 3 hours on high until meat falls off the bone. (Slow cook for 5 hours usually turns out a lot better.) Put ribs in baking dish add BBQ sauce and bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.

Best Berry Pie...EVER

Crust:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup cake flour
4 TBS unsalted butter
1/2 TBS Salt
1 TBS Sugar
4 TBS vegatable shortening
3 TBS Ice water
Refridgerate for 45 min, then roll out
"Dust" the counter top with flour before rolling

Why cold water? Why refridgerated?
As the crust cooks it heats up the cooled shortening and butter causing it to dissolve and evaporate at different stages, this causes the crust to be nice and flaky.


Filling:
2 cups blackberries
2 cups raspberries
2 cups blue berries
1/3 cup corn starch
1 to 1 and 1/4 cup sugar
teaspoon of almond extract
Reduce it on the stove on medium heat

Glaze:
3 eggs
Turbinado sugar

Create an egg yolk wash with, you guessed it, egg yolk. Brush the egg yolk on top of your finished pie crust. Then dust the top with turbinado sugar. Once baked, this will provide a golden brown crystalized finished to your pie. Serve up with some vanilla ice cream, eat, drool, then eat some more!:)

Sam's Chocolate Black Cherry Cheesecake Cookies from Heaven

These are a little labor intensive, but it makes a ton of cookies and they are freaking good:)

Sam’s Chocolate Black Cherry Cheesecake Cookie Creation

Ingredients

Cookies:

1 Box of Betty Crocker chocolate fudge cake mix

3 tablespoons of melted shortening

½ cup cake flour

1 egg

4 tablespoons of water

Center:

2 packages of Philadelphia cream cheese

2/3 cup “Like It” size cup of black cherries from Cold Stone*

2/3 small carton of heavy whip cream

1/3 stick of soft unsalted butter

5-6 tablespoons of powdered sugar (depending on taste)

5-6 tablespoons of white sugar (depending on taste)

½ teaspoon of almond extract

Garnish:

1 tablespoon of shortening

½ bag of semi sweet chocolate

(or white chocolate or whatever you want)

Dash of almond extract

Directions

Cookies:

Combine the cookie ingredients in a bowl and mix until dough forms. Cover and chill for a half hour or so.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Roll dough out on a floured surface or use a floured rolling pin. Make the dough nice and thin, about the width of an Oreo cookie, maybe a little thicker. Use a cookie cutter or a spice lid to cut out the cookies from dough. Put each cookie on a cookie sheet prepped with nonstick cooking spray.

Take excess dough, re-roll and cut until all of the dough is used.

Cook for about 6-8 minutes. Until they look puffy. If you like your cookies crunchy leave them in a little longer. They are really thin, so they cook quickly.

Remove from oven and cookie sheet and let cool on cooling rack or wax paper.

This should make about 100 little cookies.

Center:

In a blender puree cherries with whip cream.

Add mixture into a food processer with cream cheese, butter, sugar, powdered sugar, and almond extract.

Mix

Add more sugar if needed.

Pour mixture into a frosting piping bag (a Ziploc with a corner cut off works fine too) and squeeze filling on the center of a cookie, top with another cookie.

Garnish:

Put half of a bag of chocolate chips into a microwavable bowl along with a tablespoon of shortening.

Microwave for 1 ½ - 2 minutes on half heat and stir. Repeat in 30 second intervals until the chocolate is smooth.

Add a dash of almond extract and stir.

Pour into frosting piping bag, with a fine tip (or zip loc with a small hole in the corner).

Once all of the cookies are in place, get a small stream of chocolate coming out of the bag and gently crisscross the chocolate stream over the cookies to make for a nice garnish.

*if you want your own berry filling you can create your own:

1/8 all-purpose flour

¼ to ½ cup sugar (depending on taste)

2 cups of berries of your choice

Dash of almond extract

The almond is actually used quite often in pie fillings, it accentuates the berry flavor. So don’t worry about using it again. You can use something like this in this cookie recipe or in your own berry pie creations. Happy cooking!

Apple Pie

This apple pie is sooo yummy, if I do say so myself.

Filling:

6 granny smith apples peeled and thinly sliced. (Don't wash them or your filling will be really runny. Peeling the apples will take care of making sure they're clean.)

1/2 to 3/4 cup of sugar

2 tbsp flour

1 tsp cinnamon

dash of nutmeg

2 tbs butter

Combine sugar, flour, spices, and a dash of salt. Mix with apples. Put in pie dish on top of crust. Dot with butter. Put top crust, cut slits for steam to escape. Seal. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 400 degrees for 50 minutes or until done.

Crust:

2 cups flour

1tsp salt

2/3 cup shortening or butter

7 tbsp cold water

Mix flour and salt. Cut in shortening. Sprinkle 1tablespoon of water at a time. Mix with hands until in a nice smooth ball. Wrap in wax paper and put in fridge for 20 minutes. Then divide in half, roll out an put in pie dish. Roll out 2nd half and put on top after the filling has been put in.

Homemade Veggie Soup

I like this recipe. It's easy and you can use whatever you have on hand. It's especially good if you've made a ham and have leftovers.

4 1/2 pounds of whatever vegetables you have on hand.
1/2 pound diced ham
1/2 pound sliced bacon
1/2 tsp salt
black pepper, season to taste
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp thyme
1 tbsp parsley
1/2 tsp marjoram
3 crushed garlice cloves

Clean and cut veggies. Place in pot with ham and bacon. Add spices. Cover with water. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and let simmer. If you're ham isn't already cooked it'll take about 2 hours, but if it's pre-cooked and you have a good pot it'll be ready in about 30 minutes. I got the recipe out of a 1973 edition of French Cooking. We really like it.

Cinnamon Rolls

These cinnamon rolls are so good! I made 2 dozen with every intention of giving most of them to neighbors and friends. They were so irresistable that we ate all but 5 of them ourselves. Hope you like them as much as we did!

Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast
1/2 cup oil
2 cups buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk just put 2 Tbsp of white vinegar in 2 cups of regular milk and let it sit for 5 minutes then it becomes buttermilk.)

Directions:

Combine dry ingredients. Then add the liquid ingredients and mix to combine. Dough should be quite sticky. Let sit covered in the fridge overnight (about 12 hours.)

To Bake:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Melt 1/2 cup of butter (1/2 stick). Mix the filling which is 3/4 cup packed brown sugar, 3 tablespoons cinnamon, 1/8 tsp salt. Then take dough out of fridge and divide in half. Put 1/2 cup flour on the counter and knead half of the dough and roll it out into a large rectangle. Spread half the melted butter on it, then sprinkle with half the filling. Roll the dough towards you, pinch it sealed, then cut in 1 inch pieces. Do the same for the other half of the dough. Place on greased cookie sheets and bake 10-12 minutes. Drizzle with frosting if you want to, but they are great on their own! Enjoy.

Yummy Yummy Chicken Cordon Bleu

This is so easy... I really wanted to make something "nice" for Valentines Day since we weren't going out, so I found this recipe online and it was fast, easy, and delicious. Three things I love! =)

All you need is

-Shake 'n' Bake (I tried original, but it said any flavor would do)

-Chicken Breast

-Thin Sliced Ham

-Swiss Cheese

You can make as much or as little as you want.

First preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Then coat chicken with Shake'n'Bake according to box directions. Place a layer of tin foil over your cookie sheet and stick the chicken on it. Put in oven for 15 minutes. Take out of oven and let cool a little until you can slice the chicken in half without burning yourself. :) Then add a thin layer of ham and some swiss cheese to the middle. Put back in the oven for 5 more minutes and Wala, it's ready to eat!

Potato Soup

This is yummy and easy and quick! (I like these kinds of recipes.) =)

Boil 8 C water in big pot

Cut 4 red potatoes into cubes, add to pot (I like to leave the skins on)

-let boil for 10-15 min

Add:

Bear Creek's Creamy Potato soup mix

1 1/2 Tbsp minced garlic

sauteed green onion

Let simmer for about 20 ish more min.

If it turns out too thick, add about a cup of water.