Holiday Mint Milk

1 c. milk
5 chewy mints, unwrapped
1 kid handful of raisins
cinnamon/sugar

Combine first three ingredients. Sprinkle cinnamon/sugar mixture on top until surface is covered. Stir in cinnamon/sugar until moistened. Drink with straw- no fork needed.

Kansas City Sue's Crock Pot Chicken

I got this recipe off of my new favorite cooking blog: http://www.melskitchencafe.com/. This recipe is not like anything I usually make, I'm not even sure what genre to put it in. American? Middle American? Anyway, it was tasty and easy and a good way to use up that cider vinegar left over from your collard greens.


4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
1/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 onion, diced
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1 cup low-sodium beef broth

In a large skillet, heat the butter/olive oil. Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper and cook them for 1-2 minutes on each side, until nicely browned but not cooked all the way through. Remove the chicken to the slow cooker. In a large bowl, combine all the other ingredients. Whisk well. Pour the sauce over the chicken. Cover the crockpot and cook on low for 6 hours. Serve with rice or noodles.

chow down, it's good for you!

This could set the record for the vaguest post ever. I went to a friends house to eat and they had the most delicious side dish/salad! Here it is.

sliced cucumbers

rice wine vinegar

pinch of salt

"some" sugar

That's it. They had a bowl of rice wine vinegar (2 cups?) w/ what i would guess was 2T? of sugar and a pinch of salt in it. Then we had a huge platter of sliced cucumbers. We took one with some chopsticks and dipped it in the vinegar and ate it. It was fantastic! I could have eaten them all night. They said they had them at a Vietnamese place and asked what the sauce was. Easy!

Wednesday Wars Cream Puffs

We made cream puffs in honor of reading "Wednesday Wars".

(They are on pg 137 of Grandma A's cook book) I have made 1/2 a batch before and they work fine.

They are easy. Behold:

1 C water

1/2 C butter or shortening (choose butter!)

1C flour

1/2 tsp salt

4 eggs

Some kind of good, gooey stuff and opptional powdered sugar.

So you heat the butter (good choice!) and water and salt to a boiling point and add the flour all at once, stiring quickly (it says "vigorously", but sheesh, don't hurt anything). It will thicken quick, but keep beating it and stiring it till it leaves the sides of your pan and balls up around your wooden spoon. Let it cool slightly, then beat eggs in one at a time (doing all 4 at once is hard!), beating each in well. You can use a machine- it makes it lighter.

Then drop by spoonfuls (the bigger the spoonful, the bigger the

puff) onto greased baking sheet. Spread 'em out - they puff.

Bake at 400* for 30 min (this is a lie, as mine were too dark by min 18). They just need to be dry and browned. Cool, cut the tops off, gut them if necessary, and fill with pudding, whipped cream, jam, a bit of syrup, sugared strawberries, etc. etc. They aren't all that great by themselves (no sugar to speak of), but they are the vessel to hold all the other goodness. We used instant choc pudding. Very nice.

Curried Pumpkin Mushroom Soup

This soup is easy but tastes fancy.

1 package mushrooms, sliced
1/2 c. chopped onions
2 T butter
2 T flour
1 T curry powder
2 small cans chicken broth
1 15 oz can pumpkin
1 T honey
1 c milk or cream
pinch of nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

Cook onions and mushrooms in butter until soft. Add flour and curry. Cook over low heat for 5 min, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add broth, stirring to mix. Stir in pumpkin, honey, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Simmer for 15 min. Add milk/cream.

Avoid boiling when reheating.

You ate WHAT? (Collard Greens)

4 strips of bacon, sliced into 1/2" pieces
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3 dashes hot sauce
1/4 c. apple cider vinegar
1 c. chicken broth or water
2 lbs collard greens, stems removed and sliced into strips


Cook bacon, onion, garlic together in pan. Combine other ingredients and add to pan along with greens. Cook 10-15 minutes until greens are soft.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

This is delicious.

1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cup sugar
3 tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
3 cup rhubarb, cut into 1/2" pieces
2 cup sliced fresh strawberries
1 tbsp. butter
Pastry for double crust pie

In large mixing bowl stir together sugar, cornstarch, salt and ground nutmeg. Add rhubarb pieces and sliced strawberries, toss gently to coat fruit. Let stand for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare and roll out pastry. Line a 9 inch pie plate with half of the pastry. Trim pastry to edge of pie plate. Pour fruit mixture into pie plate. Dot with butter, place pastry on top of filling. Cut slits in top to allow steam to escape; seal and flute edge.

Bake at 350°F for 1 hour.

Banana Cake

Cream together 4 oz butter and 1 cup sugar.

Add to mix:
3 mashed bananas
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda dissolved in 2 Tbsp milk

Bake at 350 for 30-40 min

Glaze (make extra, this is the best part):
mix together over heat:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 oz butter
1/8 cup milk

add 1/2 tsp vanilla, 3/4 cup powdered sugar and beat all together over low heat. Pour over cake.

Cake Truffles

1 baked cake - I started with my favorite cake
1 container cream cheese frosting (although any frosting will do)
1 package chocolate chips

Put the cooled cake into a mixing bowl and blend it together with the container of frosting. I did this in the kitchen aid.

Roll into 1 inch balls and put on cookie tray.
Freeze for 3-4 hours.

Melt chocolate over a double boiler. Let it cool a bit before dipping. Dip frozen truffles into chocolate with a fork, push off fork using a toothpick. Return to fridge or freezer. Decorate tops with melted white chocolate.

Don't let Claire anywhere near the operation.

Lettuce Wraps

Warning: this recipe contains an odd ingredient. If you don't love lettuce wraps enough to overcome that, then just skip it.

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts, cut into small cubes
8 mushrooms, cut into small pieces
1 cup (2 cans?) of water chestnuts, cut into small pieces
3 small cloves of garlic, diced
1-2 bunches of green onions, finely chopped
1 small handful of cilantro, finely chopped
1/3 cup of hoisin sauce (found in asian market or aisle)
2-3 tbsp soy sauce
(2 Tbsp?) canola or veg oil

1 head of iceberg lettuce, cut in half

Cook the chicken in oil until almost done, then drop in the garlic for about a minute. Add the mushrooms and water chestnuts. Cook for another minute or so, or until the chicken is thoroughly cooked. Add the hoisin sauce and soy sauce, mix to coat; add green onions and cilantro. Cook for another minute or so.
Serve with lettuce.

Chicken or Shrimp Fettuccine

Carrie taught me this recipe a long time ago:

Cook 1 chicken breast (cubed) or 1 cup shrimp in 2 Tbsp butter

In a different pan, saute in 2 Tbsp olive oil:
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, mashed

Add
1 tsp basil
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp oregano

Then add
1 can cream of celery soup
1/2 cup heavy cream
salt/pepper

Pour over 1 lb pasta. (picture features all my leftover pastas together)

Chocolate Cheescake

Crust
1 package chocolate graham crackers (1/3 of a box)
1/2 Tbsp sugar
1/4 cup butter (melted)

Crush the graham crackers and mix in the butter. Press into 9'' pie tin.

Filling
2 packages of cream cheese **room temperature** or else they will not mix with the chocolate
5 oz of melted chocolate (this is just under 1 cup)
1/2 cup+3 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
2 eggs

Stir chopped chocolate in metal bowl set over saucepan of simmering water until melted and smooth. Remove bowl from over water; cool chocolate until lukewarm but still pourable. Blend cream cheese, sugar, and cocoa powder in processor until smooth. Blend in eggs. Mix in lukewarm chocolate. Pour filling over crust; smooth top. Bake until center is just set and just appears dry, about 1 hour. Cool 5 minutes. Run knife around sides of cake to loosen. Chill overnight.

Green rice

I should say that this recipe is kind of a bugger. I can't really recommend it unless you have a food processor or a better blender than mine. Here's why

Combine:
1 seeded jalapeno
3 Tbsp olive oil
2/3 cup cilantro
2 green onions (i use 1/3 reg onion)
1 clove garlic
salt/pepper

So you're supposed to blend the above together, but the olive oil is just not enough liquid to get it going in a blender. So I end up doing a lot of work with a spatula or adding more liquid (like lime).

Cook the rice 1 cup rice, 1 cup broth, 1 cup water.

Mix the green blended mush into the rice.

Monkey bread for 1

Ok, well more than one, but its a smaller (1/3) version of this recipe
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/05/monkey-bread/

I love this recipe because: it contains cinnamon, it takes 20 minutes, and costs about $2 to make.

1 biscuit roll (the non flaky kind)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup whitey sugar

Cut up your biscuits into 4 pieces and roll them around in the sugar/cinnamon mix. (Like snickerdoodles.) Put them in the bread pan.

Mix together:
1/4 cup brown sugar
2/3 stick of butter (melted)

Pour over the top.

Cook at 350 for 20mins or until the biscuits look nice and crispy on top.
Beth mentioned that people have done this on camping trips in a dutch oven. mmmm.

a new, easy soup

6-8cups ck broth

bag of California blend frozen vegetables

can of Italian diced tomatoes, with juice

bag of cheese tortellini (frozen or fresh- follow the directions for cooking time)

heat the first three ingredients, than add the tortellini to simmering soup 3-4 min. before serving.

EASY!

the only catch: this soup will stand on it's own, without doctoring with spices, IF you buy quality ingredients. NOT generic. each ingredient needs to be really good (duh), then it is just plain yummy. if the vegetables have been around a while, or are mostly broccoli stalks, or the canned tomatoes are too green or boring, the soup will need some garlic, basil, or a little extra help.

Lucy's Frosting

1 stick of butter
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
food coloring

Leave butter out until it gets really soft. Add sugar and food coloring. Mix until partially blended.
Use on muffins, bread, pancakes, etc.

Bisquick Cinnamon Rolls

Doh!:
2.5 cups Bisquick
3/4 cups milk
2 Tbsp sugar

Optional: raisins

Knead onto a bread board and roll out to approx 15x9.

Cover with butter and sprinkle over 2Tbsp sugar/1tsp cinnamon mix

Roll up starting with the long side.
Put in 8x8pan.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 mins.

Glaze:
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar, 2 Tbsp milk

Cowboy Salsa

4 Roma tomatoes
2 Avocados
1 can black beans (its a good idea to rinse the beans so your whole dip isn't black)
1 can white corn
1-2 jalepeno peppers chopped small
juice from 2 limes
1 clove of garlic, mashed
salt/pepper
A bit of cilatro (or none for some of you)
A bit of red onion
mix all together with about 1/2 cup italian dressing

optional: 1 can of black eyed peas

Chill in refrigerator

This recipe makes a lot. Good to take to a potluck party.

freezer zip-lock bags are the cats meow!

hey everyone:

i have been using my freezer space with a whole new vigor lately. i also have had some pretty good success freezing things i hadn't thought of before, to have around for later, so i don't have to go to the store so often. i want everybody to add to this list if you have heard of or had luck with freezing things...

lemon juice (in ice-cube trays)
ginger (whole chunks of root)
milk (just make sure it thaws all the way and you shake it before use)
butter
bell pepper
cookie dough
nuts
grated cheese (whole blocks are kinda wierd after thawing)

go ahead - whachya got?