A new dip!!

I found this dip recipe on my friend Melissa's blog ... and I had seen similar recipes on Pinterest floating around.  Everyone is saying this dip is AH-MAZ-ING!  So, for the 4th of July, I took it to our bash and everyone loved it!  I did change a thing or two up from Melissa's recipe, but it is really yummy!

List of Ingredients

2 pkgs of cream cheese (16 oz total) -- room temperature!
1 can drained corn
1 small can chopped black olives
1 pkg Hidden Valley Ranch dressing (dry mix)
1 jar of Hot & Sweet jalapeno (12 oz) -- drain and reserve 1/4 cup of the juice
1 red pepper diced

I placed the jalapeno's in my mini food processor and diced it up until it is fine.  I had my big mixer going and added the cream cheese and all the other ingredients until it is mixed well.  Add the jalapeno's and 1/4 cup of the juice from the jalapeno's.

I served this with corn chips, but I figured you could use anything!  Crackers, pita chips, etc.  Even though it calls for jalapeno's, it is NOT hot!!

molasses cookies

When I was growing up, I had a best friend named Kathy.  I would spend a week in the summer at her farm.  Her mom had a lot of homestyle foods that she made.  One of the recipes she made, was this molasses cookie recipe.  It's so delicious and yummy.

List of Ingredients

3/4 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

1 egg

3/4 cup molasses

2 1/4 cup sifted flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp ground cloves

3/4 tsp ginger

Mix together.  Form into balls and roll in granulated sugar (this is extra sugar on top of what you will put in the recipe).  Bake at 350 degrees for 8-12 minutes on ungreased pan.

Amy's Notes:  I love Grandma's brand of molasses.  I also had a hard time figuring out when to take the cookies out of the oven because they're already brown!  That being said, I actually went to the 12 minute mark before I took them out, and they didn't burn.  These are the firm, yet chewy type of cookie.  I also used parchment paper to place my cookies on in the oven ... like I do all my cookies!

Grilled pizza

Last week I was on a mission to make grilled pizza.

It was a very adventurous time, really.  I learned many things while making grilled pizza.

The first one, obviously, is to make sure you have enough propane in your gas grill.  That is THE most important thing!!!  By the time I was on my second batch, the propane ran out in the grill .... and my husband was out of town and I had no clue how to change the propane tank.

First I made dough using the Pizza Dough packet of yeast.  It required no rising of the dough (which I have the hardest time w/ in the first place).  I did have to make two packets worth b/c one packet only makes a pizza about as large as 12 inches.  Everybody had their only little pizza.

First, turn the grill on to high.  If you can handle the heat.... try to put some olive oil on the grates.  I tried, and it was hard to do, so I gave up.  I did clean it really good w/ our BBQ brush.

After you follow the directions on the packet, work your pizza out into a circle using your hands.

Then place it on the grill that is on high for 2 minutes.  You might want to even turn down the grill a little bit b/c our first pizza burned in 2 minutes.  Or, just keep an eye on the pizza.

Take it off the grill (I used a cutting board to slide the pizza on and off) and flip it so the cooked side is on the top.  Then, place your toppings on the pizza.  By this time, turn your heat down to medium high.

Put the pizza back on the grill, and let it cook for about another 3-5 minutes, or until the bottom is getting a little brown.

Ta da!!  It's done!  It actually cooks a LOT faster than the oven, and definitely has a different type of taste than an oven baked pizza.

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!