grandma's lemon cake

This is one of my favorite cakes that my grandma makes.  It's incredibly moist and is a great break away from the chocolate cakes that I love!  It's also INCREDIBLY easy with just a few ingredients!

Ingredients:

1 box of white or yellow cake mix

4 eggs

3/4 cup oil

1 small box of lemon jello

1 cup hot water

Glaze:

1 cup of confectioners sugar (or a little more if desired)

4 tbsp lemon juice

Instructions:

Pour 1 cup of hot water in a measuring dish and dissolve the lemon jello.

Mix the cake mix, egg, oil and water with lemon jello together for several minutes. 

Spray bundt pan with Pam.

Pour into a bundt pan (or a 9x13 pan) and bake for approximately 40 minutes or until toothpick is clean and edges are pulled away from pan.

Let sit for 10 minutes before turning over onto a platter.  (sometimes I have to run a spoon down the side in order to get it to loosened from the pan).

Pour the glaze over the cake.  Wrap the cake up nice & tight (and place in fridge if you'd like) -- it's best when it's super moist!

Amy's Tips:  You can make this into a lime or orange cake as well!  Just use the appropriate jello (lime jello, orange jello), and then lime juice or orange juice for the glaze.  My grandma also uses either white or yellow cake.  She did say at one time the white cake mix will bring out the lemon flavor more (in this case of the picture above, I used the yellow cake mix because it is what I had on hand).

Seven Layer Bars (7 layer bars)

I have heard of these 7 layer bars (or seven layer bars) ... and thought I'd try it out last week. 

They were gone in a day and a half.  My family LOVED this recipe!  Not to mention super easy to make.

Actually, for me, it's a 6 layer bar.  I didn't add nuts to it.  I'm not fond of nuts in my food.  Separate?  Yes.  In my food?  No.

Here is the recipe (from Eagle Brand)

1 1/2 c graham cracker crumbs

1/2 c butter/margarine

1 can sweeten condensed milk

1 c chocolate chips

1 c butterscotch chips

1 1/3 c coconut

Preheat oven to 350.  Melt the margarine/butter and then mix it with the crumbs.  Spray a 9x13 pan with Pam, and then add the crumb mixture, pressing down.  Pour half of the sweetened condensed milk over the crumbs.  Add the chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and coconut (nuts too... if you wish).  Finally, pour the rest of the milk over the top, and then back for 25 minutes or until light brown on top.

Let it sit for 10 minutes, and then take a knife and lightly make indentions on where you want the bars to be cut.  Let sit for another 10 minutes, then place in the fridge.  Cutting it will be much easier when it is cold and hardened.

I also took pictures!!  (surprise surprise!)

Yummm.... look at it up close!

Spreading the rest of the milk on top.

What it looks like when it comes out of the oven!

Wait about 10 minutes after pulling from the oven.  Then, lightly cut into squares (I managed to get 35 bars).  Let it sit for a bit longer, then place in the fridge for a few hours.  You'll be able to cut into bars MUCH easier when it's cold since it has already been cut.

Mistletoe Cookies

A few years ago a dear neighbor brought me these green cookies shaped as a wreath with red hots as the ornaments.  I loved them.  Over a year ago, another friend brought these same cookies to a church activity, and I remembered that I loved them.

So this year, the girls and I decided to make them on Christmas Eve.  Only .... the wreath part didn't happen (the circle part).  It just was too messy to make them into circles.  So we just plopped them down on the wax paper ... and I called them Christmas Blobs.

When we took the cookies to a dinner on Christmas at a friend's house, one of the husbands said "hey, these look like mistletoes!" so we renamed them Mistletoe Cookies!

We love them!  Here is the recipe (I got it from allrecipes)

• 1/2 cup butter
• 4 cups miniature marshmallows
• 1 tsp green food coloring
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 cups cornflake cereal
• 1 package cinnamon red hot candies

1. Microwave marshmallows and butter on High for 2 minutes. Stir, then microwave on High for 2 minutes more. Stir. 
2. Add and mix quickly the coloring, extracts, then cornflakes. Drop by spoonfuls in clumps on greased wax paper and decorate with 3 red hots each.                
3. Once cool, transfer to lightly greased serving/storage tray with lightly greased fingers.

Sierra Nuggets (aka ... full of spices chocolate chip cookies)

Many many years ago when I was a little girl, my aunt made these cookies.  I fell in love.  Their spices just created an amazing explosion in my mouth.  I make these every December for Christmas == but are good anytime of the year!  The ingredients are out of this world -- but I promise, they are extremely good!

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

CREAM TOGETHER:

1 c butter      1 c brown sugar     1 1/2 c sugar

ADD:

1 Tbsp milk    1 1/2 tsp vanilla

BEAT & ADD:

2 eggs

STIR IN:

1 c corn flakes (dry & crumbled)      3 c oats

SIFT TOGETHER THEN ADD:

1 1/2 c flour

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp mace

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp ground cloves

STIR IN:

4 oz coconut     1 pkg chocolate chips

Drop by well rounded teaspoons onto greased cookie sheet (or parchment paper).  Bake 10 minutes or until done.  Yields 8 dozen.

AMY'S NOTES:  I did not sift all those dry ingredients... I added them to the mixture and they turned out fine.  I also always bake w/ parchment paper -- I never have to grease the cookie sheet or anything, and my cookies always turn out perfect!  It always states that it yields 8 dozen... but w/ my cookie scooper, it yields maybe 5 1/2 dozen?  If you make them smaller, then for sure it will make that many.  I also found that my time needed 11 minutes -- wait until it gets a little bit golden before you take them out.

Another side note:  Since I didn't want to make the entire batch of cookies in one time, I used my cookie scooper and dropped them into a mini muffin pan and placed it in the freezer.  When they froze completely, I took them out with a spoon, and put in a freezer bag.  Now I'm able to make a few cookies at a time whenever I want!

Peach Crisp

Book Club was last Thursday night, and I'm hankering for fall desserts.  Even when it's 99 degrees outside in the middle of September... I want it to be fall!

Found this recipe online at allrecipes.com, and modified it a little to fit my needs.

It's most definitely a keeper!

List of Ingredients

6 fresh peaches, peeled, pitted & sliced

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/2 c flour

1/2 c oatmeal

1/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

couple shakes of nutmeg

1/2 cup butter

**Note:  I used canned peaches!!  I just didn't add any of the juice to the pan.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease an 8 inch square baking pan.

Place peaches in the bottom of the baking dish, and sprinkle them w/ almond extract.

In a bowl, combine the flour, oatmeal, sugar, brown sugar, spices and salt.  Cut the butter into the flour mixture w/ a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles crumbs.

Sprinkle the flour mixture in an even layer over the top of the peaches.  Bake in the preheated oven for about 45 minutes, or until the peaches are bubbling and the topping is browned.

**Amy's Notes:  I doubled the recipe to make a 9x13 pan, and got the big can of peaches at Sam's Club ($3.90).  I didn't use all of the peaches, but I did make sure I got a lot in the pan.  I also used half margarine and half butter -- make sure it's softened first!  Serve with vanilla ice cream!  Super yummy!

How to make whipped cream

I have the hardest time remembering how to make whipping cream.  It NEVER turns out right!  Thankfully, I found a good tutorial online ... somewhere... and I tried it out last night when I made my husband's birthday cake.

Cast of Ingredients

16 oz of heavy whipping cream

sugar (start with 2 Tbsp)

vanilla (1 tsp)

First of all, get the mixing bowl you are going to use, and the mixer tool (not the actual mixer, but those ... things!)  and put it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

After the bowl and beaters are chilled, pour the heavy whipping cream in the bowl, and add the vanilla and sugar.

Whip on medium until soft peaks are formed when you left your mixer.

Taste ... if it needs more sugar, add a little at a time.  **NOTE:  some people add sugar and vanilla at the end .. I added it at the beginning by accident and it still was OK. 

If you want to make chocolate whipping cream, add 3 Tbsp of cocoa powder plus another 1 1/2 tbsp of sugar (taste it as you go). 

Here is a GREAT link for more flavors and whipping cream recipes

Just an FYI:  One cup of whipping cream equals 2 cups of the whipped cream.  For the above recipe, you can always cut in half for a smaller portion!

BBQ Chopped Salad

I love BBQ chopped salad!  Every time I go to BJ's, I order it.  Cheesecake Factory has it .. and I am in love!!  I knew it would be relatively easy to make -- but I do have one picky child who has a slight aversion to vegetables.  If SHE will eat this, then I know I have a winner!!

I searched the internet to find a relatively easy recipe, and from there, just created my own salad.

Ingredients

1 head of iceberg lettuce

1/2 of a jicama

1 can of corn (drained)

1 can of black beans (drained)

2 roma tomatoes (cut small)

1 green onion, cut thinly

1 avocado

Monterey Jack cheese (shredded)

grilled chicken w/ BBQ sauce on top

1/3 cup of BBQ sauce

1/3 cup of Ranch dressing

(optional)  French's Fried Onions

It was a time consuming process all at once -- but if you could have some of these already cut up, then it could be assembled fast.  While the chicken is grilling, cut up the lettuce into small pieces, cut up the jicama, tomatoes & green onion.  Drain the corn and black beans.  Cut up the avocado. 

 

 

I had four plates -- and one head of iceberg lettuce was too much, so maybe start with half a head?  I just piled on the toppings, complete with the chicken on top.  Mix the BBQ and the Ranch dressing together, and that is the dressing that goes on top of the salad.  I did not use very much on each person (because of the calorie and sugar count!) -- but enough to give it some taste.  I did add some French's Fried Onion on the top of it (b/c BJ's has onion straws on top of theirs) -- but next time I will do without.  I couldn't even taste the onions on it!  Probably next time I would do two avocados instead of one for four plates. 

Next time, I might even do two parts of BBQ to three parts of Ranch dressing.  (Maybe do 1/4 cup of BBQ and 1/3 cup Ranch? -- not sure, but I do remember tasting the Ranch dressing more at the restaurants).

Did my one said child eat the salad?  Yep!  My other salad eating child proclaimed it to be "the very best salad I have ever eaten!"  It truly was delicious!