Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies

As you get ready for Christmas, you may be planning on doing some baking. I have a favorite cookie that I made for a cookie exchange a few years ago. I found it on Betty Crocker's website. I don't want to take any of the credit. They use a Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix, but I have also made my own sugar cookie recipe instead. It makes it more "home-made." Both ways turn out fine.

1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix
1/2 c. butter or margarine, melted
1 egg
3 T. Gold Medal all purpose flour
1/3 c. seedless raspberry jam
1 c. white vanilla baking chips
red or green sugar, if desired

Heat oven to 375 degrees. In large bowl stir cookie mix, butter, egg and flour until soft dough forms. Roll dough into 3/4 - inch balls; place 2-inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Using thumb or handle of a wooden spoon, make indentation in center of each cookie. Spoon about 1/4 tsp. of jam into each indentation. Bake 8 -10 minutes or until edges are a light golden brown. Cool 5 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. In a small microwavable bowl, microwave baking chips on High, 1- 2 minutes or until the chips are melted; stir until smooth. Spoon melted chips into small resealable plastic bag; cut a small hole in the corner of bag. Squeeze bag gently to drizzle melted chips over cookies. Sprinkle with colored sugar.

Enjoy and Happy Baking!

Carmel Pecan Pie

1 pie crust
28 Caramels
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. water
3/4 c. sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. chopped pecans

Make the pie crust. Prick the bottom and sides with fork. Bake crust at 400 degrees for 6-8 minutes. Cool. Combine caramel, butter and 1/4 c. water in sauce pan over medium heat. Stir constantly until caramels and butter are melted. Remove from heat. Stir together sugar, eggs, vanilla, and salt. Stir into caramel mixture and blend well. Stir in pecans. Pour into pie crust. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake 20-30 more minutes. Cool and serve.

I got this recipe from a friend and I am making it for Thanksgiving. Kirk loves this it, enjoy!

Corn Dog Casserole

8 fat-free beef or pork hot dogs, sliced
2 boxes Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix
1 cup onion(s)
2/3 cup celery
2/3 cup green onions, chopped
1/2 cup Egg Beaters
2 Tbsp Country Crock Shedd's Spread Light Margarine
1/2 cup plain fat-free yogurt
1 tsp rubbed sage
8 oz Kraft 2% Milk Natural Cheese Mild Cheddar Cheese (shredded)
1 tsp black pepper
2 tsp hot pepper sauce
1 1/2 cup fat-free skim milk
1/4 cup yellow mustard


Instructions
In a sprayed skillet, saute celery and white onion for 5 minutes. Place in a large bowl; set aside. Cut hot dogs into rounds. In the same skillet, saute the hot dogs for 5 minutes or until lightly browned; add to vegetables.
In a large bowl, combine eggbeaters, melted margarine, yogurt, milk, sage, pepper, and hot sauce. Stir in corn bread mixes. Add the chopped green onions and cheese. Combine with hot dog mixture. Spread into a 9x13. baking dish.
Bake, uncovered, at 400 for 40 minutes or until golden brown.
Cut into 8 squares.

-Mandi Hughes Julian

I haven't tried this recipe yet, but I am putting this one on my menu for this week. Thanks Mandi for the recipe. I will be posting my recipe for Carmel Pecan Pie later this week.

Smothered Chicken

I usually am going to just post once a week, but this is a bonus one!

4 boneless chicken breasts
1 green pepper (I pick 2 small peppers, one red and one green)
1 sweet onion
1 cup of sliced mushrooms
1 cup of shredded mozzarella (or other cheese)

Fry chicken and season as usual, with a little olive oil. (I just used Red Robin's seasoning and it was great!) Remove from heat. Saute onions and green peppers in the same pan over medium heat for 4-5 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook until all are tender, another 2 minutes. Add chicken back to the pan and top with the veggies. Top each piece with cheese and cover until melted. Serve over rice of your choice.

Variation #1: Slice the chicken breast after cooking and serve veggies, chicken and cheese on a hoagie style bun.

Variation #2: Top with marinara sauce before cheese and serve over pasta of your choice.

The kids don't like the veggies, but they like the chicken and rice. I usually throw some carrot sticks on their plate in that case. Kirk and I really like this and it smells yummy. I got this recipe in a recipe exchange that my cousin-in-law, Nicole did.

Calzone

All we do is make white bread dough. You could buy it at the store, but it's cheaper to make it. Then we brown a package of sausage. Roll the dough out into a large rectangle. Spread the sausage down the middle of the dough and top with 1 cup of mozzarella. Fold it all up so that it looks like a "log"! :) Bake for 25 min. at 350 or until the top is golden brown. Cut into slices and serve with a jar of pizza sauce (warmed up)! It's incredibly cheap and we just eat a salad with it! Yummy!

-Kami Hopkins

When I made it, I used a pizza crust recipe (below) that I got from a lady from our church in Griswold, when we ministered there. I also made them into individual logs so we didn't slice them, we just held them in our hands and dipped into the sauce. They were yummy! My kids liked them, too. Thanks Kami!

Pizza Crust
1 1/4c. water
1 pkg. yeast
3 T. oil
3 T. honey
4 c. flour
1 tsp. salt

Mix water and yeast. Add oil and honey. Add flour. Knead about 3 min. (You may add one more cup of flour if needed.) Let raise about 25 min. Roll out and bake at 500 degrees for 5 min. (When baking the pizza crust follow these instructions. For the calzone, I followed the calzone recipe.)

I am back!

I am trying to revive this blog after almost a year of nothing. It seems like I ran out of steam and my good idea was just an idea. The longer I didn't post a recipe, the easier for me to not try. This is my latest attempt, I emailed a bunch of my facebook friends and I ask them to send me recipes. I have gotten some that I am going to post and share with you. I am going to try them before I post them. AND I am going to try and post one a week. BUT in the event that my life gets way too crazy, I will post them with a disclaimer that I haven't tried them. SO get ready, the first recipe will be coming soon......

Meatloaf

This meatloaf is my mother's meatloaf. It is actually a combination of a recipe out of a cookbook and a friend's recipe.

1 1/2 lb. ground beef
3/4 c. uncooked oatmeal
1/4 c. chopped green pepper (my mom also adds some chopped red pepper for the color)
3/4 c. milk
1/4 c. chopped onion
1 tsp. salt
1 egg
Cheese (The cheese can be whatever you like, but we use 2 American Cheese slices)

Combine all of the ingredients and mix thoroughly. Take about half of the meat mixture and pack it in a loaf pan. Cut the cheese slices in half and layer them in the middle of the loaf. Pack the remaining meat mixture in the pan. The last time I made this meat loaf, I added some squash puree. I didn't even notice the difference. You may have noticed from the picture that there are no peppers in my meatloaf. I like them, but my kids do not. For that reason I added the puree. I also baked them in two small loaf pans instead of one big one. So they look smaller.

Topping:
1/2 c. Ketchup
1 T. mustard
2 T. brown sugar

Combine the ingredients for the topping and pour over meatloaf. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes at 350 degrees. And then I let it set for a 10-15 minutes.

Part of the recipe is taken out of the Sutherland Church of Christ cookbook.