Summer 2011, it's ON!

We are just days away from another Memorial Day weekend, the 'official' kick off to summer. I have been out of school for a week already, although it doesn't seem like it's been the lazy days yet. As I post, we are having new carpet installed on our main floor. It's a lot of work moving all of that furniture around, we had to get pretty creative with storage. Also, I didn't know it would be so NOISY! Poor Maddie, she doesn't want to be in, it's sprinkling on and off outdoors, and she doesn't know what's going on!

My sister in law Ruth put some pressure on me several years ago. She liked a particular salad I made and used the recipe over the summer for any gathering they were invited to. The next summer she said, "I need a new summer salad that lives up to the last one!" I don't recall what I sent her, but every summer since - I feel a responsibility to come up with another recipe.

I made this one two days ago, and it seems to get better as it ages. That's a plus for me, since there are only two in our house, it takes awhile to finish anything I make. I don't know if this is the best I'll find yet for this summer, but I really like it and it's pretty. Similar to others I've made, but a new little twist. Easy to double for a larger gathering, please note the change in dressing amounts at the bottom of the recipe.

BROCCOLI SLAW
1-12 oz package of broccoli slaw (This looks like cole slaw mix, but it's made with broccoli, carrots and red cabbage.)
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds
1/2 cup craisins
1/2 bunch green onions, chopped
1/2 large red pepper, chopped

Dressing:
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
(If doubling recipe use 3/4 cup canola, 1/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup cider vinegar.)

Whisk together dressing ingredients and pour over the first group of ingredients that have been combined. I think it was better day 2, so leave for several hours before serving.

It's nice to have a summer salad that is not dairy based, much safer to take with you if it won't be refrigerated!

Poppin' in to say hi.

Does this make you hungry???

I watched this recipe yesterday on the food network; and since I didn't forget about it by today~I decided I should probably try it out. A thought I had while making it was that in the summer time you really don't want to heat up the oven so this would be great! On the other hand, if it's humid it might not keep very long. Guess you'd have to eat it up pronto!!

Chocolate Popcorn Brittle

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

10 cups of popped popcorn

salt, optional

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted

3/4 cup white chocolate, melted (I substituted 2 squares vanilla almond bark)

1 cup salted pretzels, crushed (Not one plain pretzel in my house, so I skipped this)

Mix the sugar and honey in a small saucepan and bring to a boil Let simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and mix in the crunchy peanut butter, continue to stir until smooth. Add the vanilla and stir again.

In a large mixing bowl, measure out the popcorn. If desired, lightly salt the popcorn. Pour the warm peanut butter mixture over the popcorn and stir well until completely coated.

On a baking sheet lined with wax paper, pour the coated popcorn and distribute evenly. Drizzle with the melted semis sweet chocolate, then the white chocolate. Sprinkle the crushed pretzels over the warm popcorn. Allow to set about 20 minutes or pop into refrigerator to speed it up. Store tightly covered.

I'm anxious to try this again WITH the pretzels, I'm a big fan of sweet and salty together.

Cheese that goes CRUNCH!

Not long ago we had company here from Wisconsin. I put this casserole together thinking it would appeal to the 'younger' portion of the visitors. Turns out it was a good choice. Even Miles, (who tends to be a picky eater) enjoyed the casserole. Shannon asked for the recipe!

CHICKEN DORITOS CASSEROLE
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 pint sour cream
1 can chopped green chili's
1/2 onion finely chopped
3-4 chicken breasts, cooked, cooled & shredded
8 oz grated mozzarella cheese
8 oz grated cheddar cheese
1 package Doritos's nacho chips

1. combine soup, sour cream, chili's and onion together.
2. In another bowl combine the two kinds of cheese.
3. Crush the Doritos in the bag, you'll need to let some air out of the bag in order to crush them.

In a 9x13: dish layer chicken, cheese, soup mixture & chips two times.
Bake 350* 45 min.

This is a stick up!

L-o-n-g ago a friend told me about this recipe. I thought she was nuts when she told me that it started with white bread flattened with a rolling pin. I had to try it though, and I'm glad I did.

This is a recipe that can be prepared ahead of time, and stored in the freezer. Just bake however many you need. I liked them so much, I even made these for a teacher's conference that we hosted at our school.

CINNAMON STICK ROLL UPS

White sandwich bread
1 8oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup sugar

Cut off crusts from the bread and flatten each slice with a rolling pin.
Beat the cream cheese, sugar, and yolk until well blended. Spread enough of this mixture on each slice of flattened bread to cover up to 1/4" from the edge.
Roll up like a jelly roll and brush each one with melted butter. Roll in cinnamon and sugar that has been mixed together. *At this point you may freeze them to use later.*
Bake for 15-20 min @ 350* or until golden.

This time I cut off just the side crusts so I didn't waste so much bread. These are yummy, so cinnamon-y!

James' Magic Beans

For Easter we had a spiral cut ham, cheesy potatoes, cherry supreme salad, and these beans. Not a big spread, but everyone was full when we finished up. We did leave room for butterscotch pie.

The original recipe is called Grandma's Green Bean Casserole. Since I got this from my son, I decided to change the title. It was extra nice that James was there to make this for me for our Easter meal. They were GREAT!

James' Green Bean Casserole
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/4 cup onion, diced
1 cup sour cream
3- 14.5 oz cans French style green beans, drained
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup French's french fried onions

Preheat oven to 350*
1. Melt butter in a large skillet over med. heat. Stir in flour until smooth and cook for one minute. Stir in the salt, sugar, onion and sour cream. Next add the beans and stir gently to coat.
2. Pour mixture into a 2 1/2 qt casserole dish. Sprinkle cheese over the top, use more if you wish. Top with French's onions.
3. Bake for 30 minutes or until top is golden and cheese is bubbly.

I did it, I made jello.

I made jello. Not impressed? Well, I really don't ever want jello, or need jello, or even think about jello, unless it's a jello kind of holiday. I googled jello salad and this was one of the first five I saw. I think it was pretty good, but you'd have to ask a jello connoisseur to know for sure. If you try it, let me know.

Cherry Supreme Salad
1 3oz pkg strawberry flavored gelatin
1 cup boiling water
1 - 21oz can cherry pie filling

1 3oz pkg lemon flavored gelatin
3/4 cup boiling water
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 3oz pkg cream cheese
1/3 cup mayo
1 8oz can crushed pineapple, UNdrained
2 cups mini marshmallows
1/2 cup whipped cream
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. Dissolve the strawberry gelatin in 1 cup of boiling water. Stir in pie filling, then spread mixture into a 7x11 pan. Refrigerated about 45 minutes until nearly set.
2. Dissolve the lemon gelatin in 3/4 cup boiling water; stir in the lemon juice and set aside. Mash the cream cheese in a separate bowl until soft then stir in the mayo. Pour the lemon gelatin into the cream cheese mixture and stir until smooth. Add the pineapple and fold in the marsh-mallows & whipped cream. Spread the pineapple mixture over the chilled cherry layer. Sprinkle with chopped nuts and chill until fully set. About 2 hours.

I made this for Easter yesterday. I ate it again today, still wasn't bad! :-)
Maybe I could become a Jello convert. We'll see.

Easter. Chocolate. Yum.

My girls were here for a couple of sleeps. It's so nice to spend time with Lucy, uninterrupted time to just stare at her! She is going to be 2 months old this Easter Sunday! Now she can do some tricks: smile, coo, and fluff like crazy! (Fluff is the preschool nice word we use for a bodily function that sneaks out sometimes!)

I have been on a chocolate binge this last week. The black bottom banana bars I made last weekend for the game, were gone so fast I made another batch. Then I made these wonderful chocolate cookies with half of a big marshmallow on top drizzled with fudge frosting! Oh MY! I don't know if I can share that recipe yet, because I got it from a preK mom. THEN today I made black bottom cupcakes, and yes they are tasty. I am planning to switch it up a little and make my dad a butterscotch pie for Easter. I have been given 3 different recipes, not sure how to pick the winner?!?

Here we go with the cupcake recipe.

BLACK BOTTOM CUPCAKES

First buy a packaged chocolate cake mix and make according to directions. I went with a dark chocolate version, but you pick what you like the most. Go ahead and fill cupcake liners with a scoop of the batter, they should be a little more than 1/2 full. I think I got about 27 out of my mix. Next you'll be making the filling.

1- 8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup chocolate chips
Mix all of these ingredients together and top each cupcake (not baked yet) with a teaspoon of the cream cheese batter. Now Bake it at 350* for about 20 min. or until it tests done.

Now comes the frosting. Hershey's has a great butter cream frosting recipe on the baking cocoa box. However, today I used this recipe.

Mocha Frosting
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup hot strong coffee (I add in some espresso powder too)

Beat butter in a large mixing bowl until smooth. Add pwd sugar and cocoa slowly, mix constantly alternately with vanilla and coffee. Use your discretion on the amount of liquid. Less or more to make it a good consistency for spreading.

The original frosting recipe was twice this amount, but there was so much left over! It's just enough to frost the cupcakes.