DH's Birthday Cake

I am still eating from the pantry, so I had to get creative to make DH's Birthday Cake!

Here is the recipe:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

(I doubled the recipe because I have a VERY BIG pan!lol)

1 white cake mix
2T cocoa powder
3/4 cup coffee
3/4 cup haf & half
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs

Mix it all, put in pan and bake 35 minutes @ 350.

Icing:

2/3 cup cocoa powder
8T hot coffee
8T butter, softened
4 c powdered sugar
1/4 t cinnamon

Stir together cocoa and coffee. Beat in butter. Beat in powdered sugar and cinnamon. Beat for 1 minute on low, then 2 minutes on medium. This is sooooo yummy!!:)

Let cake cool, then frost!

Everyone LOVED it!:)

Christmas Baking Recipes

So, I thought you might want some of these recipes!:) I did not make the chocolate peanut butter surprise cookies, because I just ran out of steam! And I still have chocolate chip cookie dough in the fridge, but that's ok, I can make them over the weekend!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

(Double Batch)
1 1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 c brown sugar
2 c margarine
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
4 1/2 c flour
2 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 package milk chocolate chips

Mix sugars, vanilla, margarine, and eggs. Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir in chocolate chips. I chill the dough and roll them into balls and then bake at 375° for 8-10 minutes.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

1/2 c unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 c smooth peanut butter
1/3 c brown sugar
1/3 c sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla
2 T milk
1 1/2 c flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
Hershey Kisses or Hershey baking kisses

Beat the butter, peanut butter, and sugars. Add and beat the egg, vanilla, and milk. In separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to peanut butter mix. Cover and chill for 1 hour. Roll into 1" balls. Roll each ball into granulated sugar. Place on baking sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes. Place a kiss(or 3 if using the baking kisses) in center of each cookie, pressing down.

Buckeye's

2 c creamy peanut butter
1/4 c unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 t salt
1/2 t vanilla
2-2 1/2 c powdered sugar

Heat peanut butter, butter and salt in microwave until melted. Stir in vanilla and powdered sugar (don't make the mistake of turning the Kitchenaid on high... powdered sugar explosion!! lol). Roll into balls, chill for 1 hour.

Chocolate coating:
9 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
2T shortening

Melt this. I didn't do this, I cheated and bought dipping chocolate.

Dip balls in chocolate. I used toothpicks to do this, and I left a little undipped to look like a buckeye. Place on waxed paper lined cookie sheet. Refrigerate until set.

Peanut Butter Balls, ala My Mom

2 c creamy peanut butter
1/2 c butter
1 lb powdered sugar
3 c rice crispies cereal
Dipping chocolate

Combine peanut butter, butter and powdered sugar. Chill in fridge for a while. Make into balls. Dip in chocolate. (I cheated again, and used Chocolate Coating, and this worked out really well. DH liked them even better than my mom's and that is saying A LOT!!).

Chocolate Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies (did not make them yet, but have made them in the past and they are sooooo good!)

1 1/2 c flour
1/2 c cocoa powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 c unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
peanut butter, 1/4 c + 1/2 c for filling
1 egg
1 t vanilla
3/4 c powdered sugar

Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda. Set aside. Combine butter, sugar, brown sugar, 1/4 c peanut butter. Add in egg and vanilla, and stir in flour mixture. Shape into 1 1/4" balls and flatten. Make filling: 1/2 c peanut butter and 3/4 c powdered sugar. Make into 3/4" balls. Put a peanut butter ball in the center of the flatten chocolate ball. Wrap chocolate dough around the peanut butter ball and flatten again. I use the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar to flatten. Bake 8-10 minutes.

And the best recipe I made:

Pfeffernuse Cookies
(Back story, I never liked the store bought ones that taste like black licorice. DH loved them, but apparently Archway no longer makes them, because we cannot find them anywhere! I started making them last year and omitted the anise, and DH still loves them, and the boys and I now like them too! Win win!:) )

1/2 c molasses
1/4 c honey
1/4 c shortening
1/4 c margarine
2 eggs
1 1/2 t baking soda
1 t ground black pepper(I used 1 1/2 t)
1/2 t salt
1 c powdered sugar
4 c flour
3/4 c sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1 1/2 t cardamom (I did not have this and could not find it at the store, I subbed 1 t all spice)
1 t ground nutmeg
1 t ground cloves
1 t ground ginger
2 t anise extract(I did NOT use this!!)
2 t ground cinnamon

Stir molasses, honey, shortening, margarine over low heat in saucepan. Allow to cool. Stir in eggs. Combine dry ingredients. Add molasses mixture and stir. Refrigerate 2 hours. Roll into balls. Bake 10-15 minutes. Cool and dust with powdered sugar. YUM!

Tuesday - Recipe

Salsa Pasta & Chicken

8 oz wagon wheel pasta, cooked and drained
1 jar salsa(24oz)
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and diced
1 cup shredded cheese of choice

Combine chicken and salsa in skillet. Cover and heat 5 minutes, pour over pasta. Top with cheese.

This is pretty cook, and really quick if you are like me and cook your chicken up ahead of time and freeze it!:)

Last Week's Recipes

Boy has life gotten hectic! Here are last week's recipes:

Cheeseburger & Fries Casserole

2 lbs ground beef, browned & drained
1 (10 oz) can golden mushroom soup
1 (10 oz) can cheddar cheese soup
1 (20 oz) package frozen crinkle cut fries

Preheat oven to 350*.
Stir soup into cooked beef. Pour into 9x13 pan. Arrange fries on top. Bake 50-55 minutes.

Mmmm... we didn't really LOVE this... we won't be making it again! lol

Hi Ho Meat & Gravy

1 1/4 lbs lean ground beef
1/3 c seasoned dry breadcrumbs
1 egg, beaten
1/3 c minced onion

Make this into patties and cook in skillet.

Gravy:
2 (12 oz) jars beef gravy
1/4 t dried thyme
1(4oz) can sliced mushrooms, drained (we didn't have any, so I omitted this)
Heat in same skillet as patties and pour over patties.

This was sooooo good!!!:)

Monday Recipe

Spaghetti Pie

Heat oven to 350*

I made a huge batch of this, so cut it down if you need to!

2 lbs spaghetti, cooked and drained
1 jar or can of spaghetti sauce
1 lb Velveeta, sliced

Put cooked and drained spaghetti in the bottom of a pan(I used 13x9, you can use 8x8 or whatever). Pour sauce over that. Place cheese slices over that. Cook for about 10 minutes, until cheese is melted.

Cut into slices and enjoy!:)

Thursday & Friday Recipes

Sorry I'm just getting to this... my internet is making me mad! We hope to be able to get our DSL back on on Friday! Woot!

So, anyway, here are Thursday's recipes:

Chicken Bacon Wraps

Heat oven to 350*.

1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1" cubes
1 (1lb) packages sliced bacon, cut into 3rds
3/4 c brown sugar
2T chili powder

Wrap chicken cubes with bacon. Secure with toothpick. Mix together brown sugar and chili powder. Dredge wrapped chicken in mixture. (I didn't have any toothpicks... so I dredged the chicken bites first, then just patted one side of the bacon slice into the mixture and wrapped it and put it on the cookie sheet lol) Coat a rack & broiler pan with PAM. Place chicken on rack. Bake 30-35 minutes. (I don't have a rack or broiler pan...I know, right?? So, I just used cookie sheets.)

These were a HIT!! Yum!!

Cream Cheese Rangoon

1 package cream cheese
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 T sugar (I used a whole T)
wontons

Combine cream cheese, garlic, and sugar. Put about a teaspoon of mixture in the middle of a wonton. Wet the corners of wonton. Bring opposite corners up together. Deep fry in oil until golden brown, flipping halfway if needed. Drain on paper towels.

The boys LOVED these and they are vegetarian friendly for DS16!

Friday's Menu:

Homemade Pizzas


Mia Pizza Crust kits from Wal-Mart (2 in a pack)
Pepperonis
Jimmy Dean Hearty Sausage Crumbles - I use half the pack and save the rest for next time
Shredded Cheese

Make according to directions on crust kit. The kits handy because it comes with 2 crusts and 2 sauce packs, it's reasonably priced and actually very good! I make one cheese pizza and 1 meat and cheese pizza! The sausage crumbles MAKES this pizza!! It's probably the best I've ever had!:)

Then, I also made a Chapple Dump Cake:

Preheat oven to 350*

1 can cherry pie filling
1 can apple pie filling
2 boxes Jiffy yellow cake mix
2 sticks butter, cut into 12 slices each
13x9 pan(I used a 9x9 to make it thicker)

Dump apple pie filling into pan. Using a spoon, dump globs of cherry pie filling evening on top of apple(DS10 did this part!) Sprinkle cake mixes over all. Place butter slices over cake. Bake 1 hour. This is really rich and yummy! You can top with ice cream as well!

I also made some stuff to take on our trip to visit Missouri State University, which DS17 loved and has decided it will be his college! YEAH!!

Tortilla RollUps

1(8oz) cream cheese, softened
1 C sour cream
1(1oz) package dry fiesta ranch mix
1 C salsa
1 1/2 C shredded cheddar
10 (10") flour tortillas

Mix all. Spread on tortillas. Roll up. Chill in fridge. Cut into pinwheel slices.

Waffle Pretzel Snacks

1(15 oz) bag square waffle pretzels
2(13 oz bags) Hershey kisses or Rolos
1(14 oz) bag peanut butter m&ms

Put pretzels on cookie sheet. Place kisses or rolos on pretzels(we like the rolos better!). Cook in 170* oven until chocolate gets glossy, about 5-8 minutes. Take out of oven and push an M&M into chocolate. Chill in fridge. These are GONE! Everyone loved them!!:)

Wednesday - Recipes

So, tonight we are having Speedy Taco Soup and Nachos.

Speedy Taco Soup

2 (14 oz) cans chicken broth
1 (12 oz) can chunk chicken breast with broth (I'm using the chicken breast I cooked yesterday)
1 (16 oz) jar mild, chunky salsa
1 (15 oz) can whole kernel corn with liquid

Heat all to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

Nachos

Velveeta cheese
Salsa or Rotel

Melt either in saucepan on stove or in dish in microwave. Serve with tortilla chips.

Like I said, I cooked chicken breasts yesterday. I thought I would touch on that just a little. I used to chop up the chicken breasts into cubes and cook in a skillet. Then I decided to try boiling the chicken instead... so much easier, and it just falls apart when done!:)

Steph

Beverages of Choice

I wanted to throw our beverages of choice into this mix as well!:)

Sweet Tea ala Sullins

I'm VERY picky about my sweet tea... we have tried all the national brands and we like National Cup Tea from WalMart the best! It is 100 tea bags for $1.00!! I like it better than Tetley, Lipton, etc.

So, they come in packs of 100, but each 2 teabags are stuck together. So, we use 6 tea bags, or 3 "bundles".

I put those tea bags in a small saucepan and set aside. Then I take my little piggy tea kettle, that looks like this, and boil water until it whistles. Once it whistles, I pour the boiling water over the tea bags and let them steep at least 5 minutes. 

Once steeped, I take my gallon pitcher and add 1.5 cups sugar. Then I take my sauce pan with the water and tea bags(which is now TEA lol) and using a slotted spoon, I hold the tea bags from falling into the pitcher while I pour the liquid into the pitcher. I then take the spoon and "squish" the tea bags to get all the remaining liquid out into the pitcher. I stir the tea and sugar, then add cold water to the top. There ya go! Sweet Tea ala Sullins!:)

Our Iced Coffee

Ok, so we are HUGE Starbucks and Seattle's Best fans! However, our pocketbooks are NOT! lol So, we stopped having Starbucks and started having McDonald's Sugar-Free Vanilla Iced Coffee (NOT latte, coffee... it's CHEAPER and tastes soooo good!), but McDonald's iced coffees are not consistent from store to store, or even shift to shift at the same store, so many times we had to hand back our coffee for them to fix it correctly. I got tired of it, and even though we had cut the cost in half by switching, I figured we could make it at home cheaper and more consistently good!

So, here is what I do:

I use a 32 oz cup from QuikTrip, because it has a lid and I like that size of cup.

I add 1/2 cup of flavored liquid creamer. 

Then I add a little over 1/2 cups of milk(I use skim, but it's good with 2% and whole).

Then I add ice to the top of the cup.

Then top it with brewed coffee. I use Folgers, but you can use whatever brand you want!

Stir with a butter knife, because that is just what I use! lol

Drink! YUM!!

Steph

Tuesday - Recipes

Since we will be having chicken the next 3 nights(because I have chicken breasts in the fridge that NEED to be cooked!) I think I will just cook all of the chicken up today and have it ready for all of the meals I will be using it with.

Tonight we will be having Cheesy Chicken and Potatoes:

1 (20 oz) package frozen hash browns with peppers and onions, thawed
2-2 1/2 cups bite-sized cooked chicken
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

In oil in skillet over med-high heat, cook potatoes for 7 minutes. Add chicken and 1/3 c water. Cook 5-6 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in cheese. Serve.

Leftover Hot Corn Bake:

Preheat oven to 375*
3 (15 oz) cans whole kernel corn, drained (I used 2 cans)
1 (10 oz) can cream of corn soup (I used 2 cans cream style corn)
1 c hot, chunky salsa (I used medium)
1 (8 oz) bag shredded Mexican cheese

Combine everything with 1/2 the cheese. Pour into buttered pan. (I totally forgot to butter my dish, and it was fine!) Bake 25 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle remaining cheese.

I cooked this in the microwave and it was just fine! LOL

Lemon Tarts


1 (3/4 oz) box instant lemon pudding mix(any flavor will do, though)
1 package graham cracker tart shells
1 (8 oz) carton whipped topping

Mix pudding like box says and spoon into tart shells. Top with whipped topping. Refrigerate or serve.