Potato and Corn Chowder

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups peeled and diced potatoes
1/2 cup diced carrots
1/2 cup diced celery
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter
2 cups milk
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 (15 ounce) cans whole kernel corn, drained
2 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

DIRECTIONS:

Place potatoes, carrots, celery, onion and salt in a large pot with water to cover. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine butter, milk and flour in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir constantly until smooth and thick.

Pour milk mixture into cooked vegetables. Stir in corn and cheese until cheese is melted. Serve.

Note: I have done this with the Steam and Mash potatoes found in the frozen veggie isle. Just don't add them until the last 5-10 minutes of the first step.

Dana's turkey burgers and homemade fries

This is the easiest recipe but it went so well together I have to post it. A great alternative to burgers when you can't use your grill in the winter.
Turkey burgers (I only buy these when they are on sale)
Whole wheat buns
Lawry's seasoning, sprinkilled to taste onto the burgers
Swiss Cheese
Cook the burgers until they are done, usually 5 minutes on each side. Put mayo and all the fixings and cheese onto the buns.

Fries
Wash and slice your potatoes (I leave the skin on). I slice them into the size you'd get fries from a restaraunt. Lay them onto a cookie sheet. Drizzle a little olive oil over the potatoes. Then sprinkle with Lawry's. Cover with foil and cook at 425 degrees for about 10 minutes. If they seem tender after 10 minutes, take off foil and sprinkle with real parmesian cheese. Let cook without foil until brown and a little crispy- about 5 minutes. Adjust cooking times as necessary.

BLT Salad

One of my favorite salads. If you don't like one of the ingredients, just leave it out. For pretty presentation, it is fun to put each serving of salad into a pint-size canning jar with a pretty tie at the top. This can be served as a meal with rolls to top it off.
6 cups romaine or leaf lettuce
4 cups cubed turkey or chicken
1 1/2 cups chopped tomato
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 1/2 cups shressed cheddar cheese
10 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 cup red onion
1/2 cup chopped cucumber
1 avocado, chopped
Dressing:
1 cup plain yogurt
1 cup mayo
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup red wine vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)
1 tsp. garlic powder (I find that is pretty strong- you can even try 1/2 or 3/4 tsp. instead)

In a large salad bowl, combine the first 10 ingredients. Just before serving, whisk the dressing ingredients. Pour over salad, toss to coat. For me, it would feel like my salad is swimming in dressing, so I usually only use about 1/2-3/4 the dressing. Then I save the rest for dipping fresh vegies, which my kids love, for another day.

Grapefruit Cake

No- it isn’t healthy, which is what everyone always asks me. After Jessica confirmed that it was NOT healthy, she tried a piece—and loved it! It is the perfect cake during grapefruit season!
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 ¾ cups sugar
2 eggs
1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. grated grapefruit peel
3 cups cake flour (or 3 cups regular flour minus 6 tbls.)
2 ½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
½ cup fresh squeezed grapefruit
¾ cups milk
Citrus Frosting (see below)
In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each additions. Stir in vanilla and peel; mix well. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with grapefruit juice. Beat just until combined. Stir in milk. Pour batter into 2 greased and floured 9-in. baking pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.

Citrus Frosting
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup butter
About 2-3 tbls. lemon juice (bottled is fine). If it is still a little dry, add a tbls. of milk.

Mix powdered sugar and butter. Stir in lemon juice. When cooled, frost the first layer of cake. Then put the second layer on and frost.

Apple-Raspberry Jello

This is my favorite jello (and one of the only kinds I like). It is the perfect way to use home canned applesauce.

3 cups applesauce (unsweetened is best)
1/4 cup orange juice
2- 3 oz. pkgs. raspberry jello
12. oz. lemon-lime soda

In a large sauce-pan, bring applesauce and orange juice to a boil. Remove from the hear; stir in jello until dissolved. Slowly add soda. Pour into mold (or a pan). Refrigerate until firm.

Labeling

Hey guys! I am loving all the recipes! I have tried several and am happy to report that our menu is expanding! Yay!!!

We have a couple new authors. Diane is my friend from BYU..the good ol' days. And Dana is my new friend (Rnady's friend from high school.)

I was looking back through the posts and I saw that I am horrible at labeling my posts. But I reailized that for this blog, labeling will make it so much easier to find recipes. (Notice the left hand column has the labels you can click on to find the recipe.)So in doing that, maybe if the lables were a little nore general...like: chicken, pork, cookies....it will be easy to find what you want. You can also be sepcific like: fajitas, chocoalte chip, etc... but having a broad category would be helpful.

What do y'all think?

Ham on Biscuits

My kids' favorite breakfast.

1 cup flour
2 tsp. sugar
1 1/8 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
2 tbls. cold butter
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1 egg
3 tbls. milk
8 tsp. butter, softened
ham slices for each biscuit

In a bowl, combine dry ingredients. Cut in cold butter until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add cottage cheese, milk and agg until blended.

Turn onto slightly floured surface; knead 8-10 times. Get about a tablespoon full like you would a normal biscuit. Place 1 ince apart on ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 450 for 8-12 minutes or until golden brown. Split biscuit in half; spread with softened butter and place ham in between the 2 halves. Makes between 6-8 biscuits. Double for a larger family.

Chocolate Truffles

Here it is! My visiting teacher brings these to me every year for Valentine's Day. She finally taught the young women how to make them so Jess brought the recipe home last night. All I have to say is: these are so Dang good!

Chocolate Centers
1 cup plus 2 tbls. heavy cream (not whipped)
3/4 cup unsalted butter
32 oz. chocolate chips (semi-sweet OR part milk and part semisweet)
3/4 cups sour cream
flavoring- (optional) 1 tbls. orange extract or 1 freeze-dried raspberry powder.

Bring cream and butter to a boil, reduce heat to medium and stir until butter melts. Add chocolate and whisk until smooth. Remove from heat and whisk in sour cream and flavorings. (If you want to make both flavors, divide the chocolate mixture after adding the sour cream and then flavor each half seperately). Pour into a 9x13 baking dish if one flavor, or two 8x8 glass dishes if you have 2 flavors. Cover and refrigerate over night (or longer).

Coating

• Real chocolate sprinkles


• Milk or white chocolate coating wafers


• A mixture of 1 1/2 cup cocoa and 1 cup powdered sugar sifted together.

To make the actual truffles, take little round scoops of the cold chocolate center mixture with a melon baller. Use spoons and coat with melted chocolate, or roll balls in choc./powdered sugar mixt. or choc. sprinkles. The dipping choc. gets grainy, so you may have to replace it frequently to coat all the balls. As you do each one, place on a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper. After coating has hardened, put each one in a candy cup and store in fridge. This recipe makes about 90+ truffles. (Small candy cups and boxes can be purchased at candy stores or Michael's).

White Chicken Chili

3- 15 oz. cans great northern beans or cannellini beans, drained
2 cups cooked chicken (I usually crock-pot my chicken in the morning and make this when the chicken is ready).
1 med. onion
2 med. red peppers
1-4 oz can diced green chilies
3 cloves garlic (or scant ½ tsp. garlic powder)
3 ½ cups chicken broth
2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. dried oregano

Cook onion, peppers, and garlic in pot with a little oil or butter until tender. Combine all other ingredients and heat until simmered through, about ½ hour. Don’t boil or else the chicken will get tough and beans will get mushy. If your kids have an aversion to onions or peppers, just leave them out (it is still so good with either of those omitted!) Good by itself, or served with sour cream, tortilla chips, or cheese quesadillas.

OR- if you have 2 cups prepared chicken, put the cooked chicken along with everything else in the crockpot on high 4-5 hours or low 8-10 hours. No need to precook the veggies. This recipe may be doubled or tripled.

Melissa's sugar cookies.

These are the best sugar cookies for at least two reasons. First, you don't have to roll them out or frost them. Second, they taste REALLY good - (kind of doughy)

Melissa Johnson's Sugar Cookies
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. sour cream
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
2 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 400. Mix sugar, butter, and sour cream. Add vanilla and egg. Add rest of ingredients. Dough should be very soft. Take spoonfuls of dough and roll into a ball. Roll ball into sugar. You can use colored sugar or sprinkles - whatever you have on hand. Place on cookie sheet. Bake at 400 for 7-8 minutes. The cookies will be done when they are barely brown around the edges. Do not over bake.

If you want to roll this dough, it works great too. I refrigerated it to make the dough easier to work with. And I made sure there was plenty of flour on the counter and rolling pin. Try not to add too much flour though because the more flour you add, the less tender your cookies will be. Don't roll out too thin. The ideal sugar cookie for me is soft and thick. Bake for 7-8 minutes or until barely brown around edges. Frost.

The BEST roll/dough recipe!

Hi guys! I'm new here. But I am excited to look over your recipes and add a few of my own. Hooray for good ideas!

I have been asked for this recipe several times now. It is so versatile. I have baked cinnamon rolls and fried scones with the all white flour version. The half white/wheat version makes fabulous rolls. They are very moist and taste really really good.

One thing I like about the recipe so much is that it doesn't have to rise twice. Make the dough, shape into whatever, and then let rise and bake. It makes for a fast roll since the dough really raises fast. I rarely get dinner started early enough to make a full fledged twice rising dough.
Here it is....

Suzy's Spectacular Rolls

1/2 c. shortening
1/2 c. sugar
2 tsp. salt
Blend together well and add -

2 c. scalded milk
2 eggs

Dissolve yeast in water and then add to the slightly cooled mixture.
2 TB yeast
1/2 cup water

Then add 7 c. flour. (3 c. wheat, 4 c. white or any combination) Just as a side note, if I do more than 3 c. wheat, the rolls don't turn out quite as good. I like the texture of the 3 c. wheat/4 c. white combination. With all of the flour white, it makes excellent doughnuts, scones, and unbelievable cinnamon rolls.

Bake at 350 for about 10-15 minutes (or until golden brown) depending on what you are making. Do not overbake!

*To make crescent shaped rolls (my favorite) cut the dough into two sections and roll/shape each section into a circle about 10 - 12 inches in diameter. Brush with softened butter. Cut into pizza slices (8 slices per circle) and roll from the wide end to the narrow end. Bend slightly to make crescent shape and place on a cookie sheet with the pointy part under the roll.

Yum!

No Egg Cookie Dough

These make yummy egg-free cookies if you have an allergy. Or, for those of us who don't care to re-live salmonella episodes, you can eat this dough!


1 1/2 cups butter
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
Cream butter and brown sugar, then add:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3 cups oatmeal

You can add chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and coconut. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes.