Cream Cheese Pound Cake

3 cups sugar
3 sticks margarine
6 eggs
3 cups flour
1 - 8 oz package cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream margarine and cream cheese together. Add sugar and cream together well. Add 2 eggs, then 2 more eggs. Add half of flour, than last 2 eggs. Add last cup of flour and vanilla.

Pour into greased bundt pan. Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

This is my absolute favorite pound cake, but it's so rich that I usually have it just once a year. :-)

Fantastic (and super easy) Potato Soup

6 cans diced potatoes with their juice
1 stick butter
1/2 block Velveeta
16 oz tub green onion dip
Small bag of Real Bacon Pieces

Put all together in crock pot and crock for 2-4 hours.

Recipe from my sister Elise.

This is an absolutely amazing recipe from Ree Drummond's Pioneer Woman website. The web address for this recipe is below it. Searching under her Main Dish category, she has a bunch of 16-minute meals and I have found that they pack a huge amount of flavor into quick dishes which are perfect for weeknight dinners. I tried her Coconut Curry Shrimp recipe last weekend, but subsituted a combination of  chicken breast and beef roast meat. It was wonderful, as well.

This is best thing I've made in a long time!

Quick and Easy Roasted Red Pepper Pasta

Prep Time:

 5 Minutes

 

Cook Time:

 10 Minutes

 

Difficulty:

 Easy

 

Servings:

 8

Print Recipe

Ingredients

• 12 ounces, weight Pasta Of Your Choice (I Prefer Short Ones Like Rigatoni, Penne, Etc.)
• 4 Tablespoons Butter
• 1/2 whole Large Onion, Finely Diced
• 3 cloves Garlic, Minced
• 1 jar (15.5 Ounces) Roasted Red Peppers, Drained And Roughly Chopped
• 1 cup Vegetable Or Chicken Broth
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt, More To Taste
•  Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• 1/2 cup Heavy Cream (more To Taste)
• 1/2 cup Parmesan Shavings (more For Serving)
•  Finely Minced Parsley
•  Chopped Fresh Basil (if You Have It!)

Preparation Instructions

Cook pasta in salted water according to package directions.

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions and garlic and saute for 2 to 3 minutes or until starting to soften. Add the chopped red peppers and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until hot.

Remove the skillet from the heat. Carefully transfer the contents of the skillet to a food processor or blender. Place on the lid and puree the pepper mixture until totally blended (there will still be some texture to the peppers.)

Heat the other 2 tablespoon butter back to the skillet over medium heat. Pour the pepper puree back into the skillet. Add the broth, salt, and pepper, and stir until heated. Splash in the cream and stir to combine. Taste and adjust seasonings if you need to.

Drain the pasta and add it to the skillet. Add Parmesan and parsley/basil, then stir it together to coat the pasta.

Serve in bowls with extra Parmesan and a sprinkling of parsley on top.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2013/05/quick-and-easy-roasted-red-pepper-pasta/ 

Whole wheat Ritz crackers plus pepperoni & cheese. Bake at 350 for about 5 minutes. Stay close because they are done quick. Our kids love them!

It's official. You can make pesto out of anything. I've actually never successfully made pesto, but I have wanted to. Found a recipe today for a mint pesto (3 cups mint, 1/4 cup salted almonds, olive oil & salt) and was inspired because we have mint growing at the house.

Well, all of our mint amounted to 1/2 cup, so I had to improvise. We had a bowl of leftover salad in the fridge that was romaine lettuce and feta cheese. I pulled the green leafy parts off the lettuce and dumped it in there with the feta. I added minced garlic and even some cashews that happened to be sitting on the counter.

It is fantastic!! I realize the picture looks a bit like pea baby good, but I promise it was quite tasty. We added the pesto to the top of the chicken Alfredo I served over shell pasta.

Microwave Roux

Over the long weekend, I'm working on some meals that I can freeze to make things easier on me making dinner during the week. One of the things I'm making this weekend is chicken & sausage gumbo. I've made this most of my life and make roux the traditional way most often, but think I'm going to go back to a microwave roux this time.

Don't roll your eyes. It really does taste the same. Seriously. Takes about the same amount of time too, but the microwave variety takes slightly less babysitting because I can walk away from it from a minute or two at a time. Thought I would share the recipe.


Microwave Roux

1 cup flour
1 cup oil

Mix ingredients into a creamy paste in a glass 2-quart measuring bowl (or whatever glass bowl you have, but the handle is especially helpful in this process).

Microwave on high for about 4 minutes. Stir. Cook for an additional 2 minutes. Stir again. At this point, the mixture should be bubbly and start to turn a darker color.

Watch closely from this point forward. Continue to cook for 30-45 seconds, then stir again. Continue these small 30-45 second cooking times until you get your desired roux darkness.

Copper penny color is what I shoot for.

Throw in your diced green onions when you are done and it will stop the cooking and make less splatter when you add to your gumbo.

Strainer Tip

I'm am about convinced that this really works and I'm not just thinking it does in my head. We make a LOT of macaroni & cheese at our house. This always has the pasta sitting in the strainer for a couple of minutes while I make the sauce. That couple of minutes always leads to pasta stuck in the strainer.

A while back I started giving the strainer a quick spray of nonstick cooking spray. It actually works and helps the pasta slide back out into you pot or serving container. Warning, the more you shake it (to get out more water), the less effective the cooking spray is. But if I just pour it and let it drain on its own, I've had good success with this.

Interesting Soup

Boyd got us a couple of fresh pineapples last weekend and I was searching for ways to use up the rest of it. I came across the following recipe on Food52 and it intrigued me so much that I just had to try it. It was definitely not bad, but not sure that I will have it on my "must have" list from here on out either. It wasn't quite hearty enough on it's so, so I sauteed some chicken and threw it in there.

Sweet Potato Pineapple Soup

• 2tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1medium onion, chopped
• 2garlic cloves, peeled & finely chopped
• 1pound sweet potatoes, peeled & cut into 1" pieces
• 1cup pineapple, peeled & chopped into 1" pieces
• 4cups water
• 1tablespoon dried sage leaves
• 1tablespoon salt (and extra for final seasoning)
• 1/2tablespoon freshly ground black pepper (and extra for final seasoning)
• 1/4teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2tablespoons toasted coconut (optional)
• 2tablespoons chopped cashews (optional)

1. Saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil, in a heavy bottom pan over medium-high heat, until soft.
2. Add sweet potato and pineapple, and saute for a few minutes. Add in water, sage, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Stir and bring to a boil. Then, lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes until potato is tender.
3. Puree the mixture with a hand blender or in a stand-blender. Return the pureed soup to your pot and gently simmer, adding additional seasoning as needed. You'll definitely need to add a bit more salt and pepper.
4. http://food52.com/recipes/1617-sweet-potato-pineapple-soup

Made another take on the frozen banana ice cream tonight. I was wanting more of a fruity sorbet type of treat. I started blending the bananas in the food processor, then added some orange juice concentrate and a bit of vanilla to take the tart edge off. It was actually pretty darn good.

Bread

So, I've taken to baking bread lately. Boyd had brought home a couple of wheat bread mixes that turned out really good (especially toasted with avocado spread which had a bit of garlic, sour cream & lemon in it). We went through those two loaves and it inspired me to pull out a recipe that I had from growing up. It is now in "My" cookbook, but it references that it is from the Zondervan Family Cookbook originally.

90-Minute No-Knead Bread

1 cup warm water
1 package yeast
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. oil
About 2 1/2 cups flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add salt, sugar, oil and about half the flour. Stir vigorously for 1 minute. Stir in the rest of the flour, adding enough to make a soft dough. Let stand for 15 minutes.

Turn out on a floured surface (wax paper fits nicely in one of my cookie sheets and somewhat contains the flour cloud) and beat with a wooden spoon or rolling pin for one minute, folding dough over when it becomes flattened (I enjoyed just using my hands to smack it - good stress relief whatever you use).

Form into a loaf and place in a greased 9x5" loaf pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes, until doubled. Bake at 400 degrees for 18 minutes.

The picture above is from this afternoon when I decided to switch things up. I added 1 cup white flour, 1 cup wheat flour and 1/2 cup flaxseed meal. Just used white flour to dust for the smashing part. This loaf is phenomenal! It did not rise as much and is more dense, but the flavor is great. Dalton really liked it too, which says a lot for something that is slightly better for him than white bread. Hope you enjoy!

Made some good chicken tonight that I originally saw on a Hellmann's Mayonnaise commercial and tracked it down on their website. Give it a try. Only a couple of changes I had to make. I had to cook mine a little longer because they were slightly thicker chicken breasts. I also put a drizzle of olive oil in the bottom of my glass baking dish to keep it from sticking. Plus I followed their smart tip at the bottom of the recipe because I had some of their olive oil mayo.

Received rave reviews from all except Dalton and he could scrape off the topping.

Parmesan-Crusted Chicken

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup Hellmann's® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 1-1/4 lbs.)
• 4 tsp. Italian seasoned dry bread crumbs

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 425°.
2. Combine Hellmann's® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise with cheese in medium bowl. Arrange chicken on baking sheet. Evenly top with Mayonnaise mixture, then sprinkle with bread crumbs.
3. Bake until chicken is thoroughly cooked, about 20 minutes.

SMART TIP: For the Hellmann’s® taste you love with the goodness of olive oil, substitute Hellmann's®or Best Foods® Mayonnaise Dressing with Olive Oil. 

http://www.hellmanns.com/recipes/detail/32658/1/parmesan-crusted-chicken#.Uxnm_dW-gCk.email

As some of you may know, my husband coupons. Not enough to be on one of these extreme reality shows, but takes good care of our family. Every so often, we do get a larger than normal amount of a single product and it is then my challenge to get creative in how we consume it all.

Week before last it was the mini Grands biscuits. He came home with 20+ tubes of them. Today's lunch is biscuit pizzas. Smush & stretch each raw biscuit and top with sauce & cheese. These have chopped ham as well.

You can use the same smushing tactic to make little pocket sandwiches. Just fill with meat, then fold it over and crimp it. We made some that had a breakfast sausage/cream cheese center. It is also good with taco seasoned beef in the center.

I know I saw someone do this, so I cannot take credit for the idea, but unfortunately I can't remember who it was, so I can't give them credit.

Continuing with my new affinity for my waffle iron. Throw in your whop (tubed) raw cinnamon rolls and you get perfect cinnamon roll waffles. Don't forget to spray the waffle iron with nonstick cooking spray.

Makes perfect little "bowls" to hold the icing so you don't leave half of it in the bottom of the pan.

Maggie Anne didn't like how they looked, so she wouldn't eat them, but Dalton inhaled them and Jessie enjoyed as well.

I am just realizing that I never posted this. I have discovered a new love for my waffle iron. Makes dreamy grilled cheese that is easily hand held, so perfect for the kids. All three kids inhaled these.

You have to squish it pretty good. All that contact gives you an all-around crunchy texture. Works even if you are putting some lunch meat in there.

Updated Banana Ice Cream

I posted before my success with banana ice cream - you can find it by clicking the "Recipes" label at the bottom of this post - and tonight we made it even better. 

I processed the frozen bananas as usual, but then I added a heaping teaspoon of honey-flavored creamy peanut butter and a handful of chocolate chips. I processed the peanut butter until well combined, then Maggie Anne threw in the chocolate chips thru the lid of the processor. Some of the chips got broken up, but others stayed whole. It was some fun texture in there. Kids LOVED it!

Now any time we have bananas that are past their prime, I peel them and throw them in a freezer bag to freeze for this treat. 

New Food Website

Well, I don't know if it is exactly new, but it's new to me.

www.Food52.com

Beautiful pictures. Some of the recipes are more than I want to take on for our family, but I will say that I've cooked with a lot of new ingredients in the last 24 hours - rice flour and ground flaxseed specifically.

If you had told me that I would make muffins with wheat flour, ground flaxseed, oatmeal, buttermilk and blueberries (no, that's not all) AND that all of us would like them, I don't know that I would have believed you. I mean, SOMEBODY has to not like them just on principle.

I have not searched the site extensively, but I've found three VERY successful recipes (Lemon Posset is a MUST try) by going to the Contest Winners category of recipes. And I haven't even made it through a quarter of that list.

Oh, and you can register at the site with your email address and create a recipe box for an easier way to save the recipes.

Check it out!

Last time Boyd and I had a date night, I tried out a new dessert recipe. It was phenomenal. So good that I made it again before the weekend was out. So, I wanted to share it with you. My chocoholic son loved them as well. I was looking for a recipe that used Nutella that I had seen before and I believe I was missing an ingredient. A lucky Google search connected me to this recipe from yummly.com - it was fate. :-) Quick note, I worried that it looked like too much trouble (I usually stick with simple recipes), but this is soooooo totally worth it!

Molten Chocolate-Nutella Pudding Cakes

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons of Nutella

1. Preheat oven to 350. Mist 6 6-oz ramekins with cooking spray. Place a roasting pan in oven; pour in 1/2 inch of hot water.

2. In a bowl, whisk flour, cocoa and baking powder

3. Combine chocolate & butter in a microwave-safe bowl; cook on high, stirring one or twice, until almost melted, 1-2 minutes. Whisk until smooth.

4. In a bowl, with an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat eggs, vanilla, sugar & salt until pale yellow, about 5 minutes. Beat in melted chocolate mixture. Stir in flour mixture. Spoon half of batter into ramekins. Drop 1 tablespoon of Nutella into the center of each. Cover with remaining batter.

5. Transfer ramekins to roasting pan. Bake until cakes have risen and are cracked on top, about 30 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes. Serve warm.

http://www.yummly.com/recipe/Molten-Chocolate-Nutella-Pudding-Cakes-MyRecipes-265075?columns=4&position=1%2F1

Notes:
~ 2nd batch, I only used teaspoons of Nutella and everyone liked better
~ I didn't have 6 ramekins, so I used 2 larger mugs that I had which I knew were oven safe & 2 regular ramekins. It worked fine.
~ Heads up. The beautiful cracked top will fall. I was so proud when the first came out and then had to laugh when I returned to serve them.
~ Warm they are amazing, but they were just as good at room temperature the next day.

Perfect from the oven

Falling tops

Seriously yummy dessert time. Super easy, too.

Sliced banana
Grapes (mine were large, so I cut in half)
Vanilla Greek Yogurt
Drizzle of Honey
Chopped Dry Roasted Peanuts

Awesome textures and tastes working together!

I felt like making some red beans and rice. Remembering that mom told me not long ago that she made some tasty ones in her crock pot, I decided to give it a shot. Here's what went in.

1/2 onion, diced
chopped garlic to taste (I like garlic, so I went with 2 cloves)
1/2 bag of dried red beans
Tony Chacere's Seasoning
1 teaspoon cumin
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 beef bouillon cube
1 cup sliced kielbasa sausage
water to cover

Set it on low and let it go.

Mine went for about 7 hours. Now I was home that day so I started them on high because I did not know how fast they were going to rehydrate. I will feel totally comfortable setting them on low and heading out to work from here on out.

Totally amazed that this actually worked. I had seen it several times in various places. Slice several bananas and freeze them. Once frozen, throw them in the food processor and process the fire out of them. Eventually, you will get this incredibly smooth "ice cream." 

I warn you, about a minute into it, I had to stop and look it up online to make sure I didn't mess it up. I thought for sure at that point that I was suppose to add some cream or something, but when I returned to it and started processing again, it started to come together. 

Really, really tasty!