Snicker Doodles

This is my award winning Snicker Doddle Recipe!

(works great in a mixer!)

Cream thoroughly:

1 c shorting

1 ½ c sugar

2 eggs

Add:

2 ¾ c flour

2 T cream of tarter

1 t baking soda

½ t salt

Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture and mix well. Roll into balls about 1 inch across.  Place ball of dough into a Cinnamon Sugar mixture, sort of squash the dough ball into the mixture flattening it a smidgen, then place it cinnamon sugar side up on the cookie sheet (the Air bake cookie sheets work best).  Press the center of the cookie with your thumb and index finger making two small indention's (I have no idea why, I was just taught to do it this way)

Bake 375 degree F for 10-15 mins or until golden brown.  Recipe SAYS it will make 5 dozen cookies, but I think it lies … Of course my family likes to taste the dough before its cooked and then they don’t stay on the plates long enough to count them!

Homemade Pizza Pie Dough

My husband loves pizza, but it cost WAY to much to eat it a lot and the franchise type ones always make me feel sick.  So I started looking online for a good recipe.  This one is AWESOME!

Pizza Dough: (makes 2 round  pizza’s)

Place in stand mixer:

6 c flour

2 ½ c very warm water

5 t Yeast

2 t Sugar

1 t Salt

3 t Oil (extra virgin)

Turn on mixer on second lowest setting. Let mix for 5-6 mins. Oil and take out the ball of dough. Place in a bowl in a warm spot in the kitchen and let rise for 5 mins. Split ball of dough in half for one pizza.  Oil your pizza pan and spread dough out with your fingers.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place JUST dough in oven and bake for 10 mins. Take the pizza out and then put all your ingredients on the top of the pizza, and finish baking for another 5 – 10 mins.

This pizza had some Hunts Spaghetti Sauce from the can for the base, then grated mozzarella cheese, chopped up Canadian bacon and Pineapple chunks (next time I will use pineapple tidbits)

I did another one that was very good. I put BBQ sauce on the bottom, chicken chunks and mozzarella cheese. (next time I think I will add caramelized onions to that one)

Canned Apple Pie Filling

I made this apple pie filling this summer with my canning spree! It was super fun to make.  I do have an apple, peeler, corer which made prepping the apples much easier. It was about $25 ish and  suction cups to the counter.  This recipe made 7 quarts for the apples I used. Depending on size of apples - its give or take. 1 quart is the filling for 1 pie. I cheated on the Pie crust, I used Philsbury refrigerated dough, but it did come out nice and flaky.  I backed it at 425 degrees for 35 mins. Perfect! (In a glass baking pie dish)

12 c sliced peeled cored apples treated to prevent browning drained
2 3/4 c granulated sugar
3/4 c Clearjel
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 1/4 c cold water
2 1/2 c unsweetened apple juice
1/2 c  lemon juice

Prep your jars, lids, canner etc.  You want it all ready before you start.
In a large pot of boiling water, blanch apple slices for 1 min, remove with a slotted spoon.

In a large stainless steel sauce pan combine sugar, clearjel, cinnamon, nutmeg, water and apple juice. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring constantly and cook until mixture thickens and begins to bubble. Add lemon Juice, return to a boil and boil for 1 min, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Drain apple slices and immediately fold into hot mixture.  Before processing, heat and stir until apples are heated through.

Ladle hot pie filling into hot jars leaving 1 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary by adding hot filling.  Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Screw band down until resistance is met and then increase to finger tight.

Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil and process for 25 minutes. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 mins and then remove jars, cool over night. unscrew the bands and gently wipe any food bits off jars and store with bands off (if it sealed properly this wont be a problem) If you store with bands on, they tend to rust.

This was the only picture I could find of the apple pie filling after being canned.  Its the row on the bottom right with chunky apple slices. The rest of the jars on the bottom are two different batches of Apple sauce. You can see the darker batch - it has more Cinnamon then the other batch. We liked the extra Cinnamon better so will do that next year. and see that one tiny jar? its apple sauce too - just didn't have enough to fill a quart jar so I put it in a pint jar. DO NOT can jars that are not full to the recommended head space. This will cause the seal to fail easier, then if it is filled correctly. With apple sauces its easy ... just put any left overs in the fridge and eat right away, there is NOTHING like fresh homemade applesauce. YUMM! great with chicken and pork too!

The top row you can see being stored in the boxes it came from the store in ... the Pints are all spaghetti sauce, and then the half pints on top are in front Mint jelly with out the green dye, I am trying to take out every unnecessary ingredient's in my family's food.  behind the plain colored Mint Jelly is Garlic Jelly .. heeheehee haven't cracked any of those open yet! LOL ....

7 or So Layer Bean Dip

This can be any number of layers you want.  Just start with the bottom layer of beans and add whatever you like!  SUPER tasty!  In fact – sometimes I just make this dip and that’s dinner, one of my husbands favorite.  This time I brought the dip into the front room, set it on the floor with a towel under it and announced we were having a picnic in the front room for dinner.  The kids were delighted! (hey its Jan in ID – too cold to go outside for much right now)  It was a fun family activity.  So here is how I did the one in the picture. (sorry about it being half eaten – dinner didn’t make it into the front room before everyone started eating it! I guess that means the really like it!)

Bottom Layer to Top Layer.

Beans – Vegetarian Canned (you fart less if you eat the Vegetarian canned beans)

Sour Cream – full fat enjoy this mean

Avocado mashed in a bowl with a fork

Salsa

Cheese

Sliced Green Onions

Sliced Olives

You can also add things like

Cooked ground beef

Guacamole

Peppers

Canned corn

Chopped Tomatoes

What ever you and your family likes, toss it in. 

Makes a great party dip, and once in awhile dinner.

Optima D34/78 YellowTop battery

Usually I am all about a good bargain.  But in life there are some things I just wont scrimp on, cars and car parts being some of them.  If it is hauling my family around I want it as safe and reliable as possible.  My family loves cars. We love engines.  To that end we love what we put in them.  I always laugh when I watch car shows and people lift the hood and they have a wimpy battery when they went all out with everything else.

You don’t need a super racer, you can put it in your daily driver if you want too.

I know how to jump a car if I have too.  But I don’t WANT to, and I defiantly don’t want it to happen while I have the kids with me.  So here is one of my recommendations Optima D34/78 YellowTop battery.  It rocks, enjoy!

* If you are going to buy this battery please click on the link to Amazon on the side bar on the right.  If you purchase through that link, then we will get a percentage of the purchase and it will help our family, and help us pay for college! Thank you for looking!

The Happiest Baby on the Block

The Happiest Baby on the Block is a DVD and BOOK. This is the BEST DVD and book. Its by a UCLA Pediatric Dr who kept seeing shaken baby syndromes, and couldn’t understand why, because many other countries don’t have this problem! He did 30 years of researching how other countries raise and handle there babies and came up with the 5 S’s. These are 5 things to do to sooth your crying baby. A quick overview .. Swaddle tightly, Shhhhh (in there ears), Side (holding not laying them down), shake (not for real, its like a gentle giggle), and Suck (pacifier). For a quick preview you can see some of it on YouTube, HOWEVER you absolutely need to buy the DVD because it has 3 sound tracks on it, to duplicate the noise your baby heard in the womb. One is really loud to calm them down from a crying fit, one is a med noise to calm for just gentle crying, and the last one is 40 mins long of gentle womb noises to help them sleep. I PROMISE they work great! We have used it with both our children and the cry less and sleep longer and both our kids were breast fed. This is the BEST DVD and Book to have if you want to have a happy baby and get more sleep yourself!

So I suggest getting the DVD LONG before the baby comes, watch it a bunch of times and PRACTICE swaddling on dolls – it helps! Then buy the book and the book goes into a lot of detail as to WHY these things work so well. By educating yourself as to why these actions work, you will be better able to understand what your baby needs.

You will be a better parent for having watched this DVD, reading this book and implementing it in your family’s lives.

There is also a second book for “The Happiest Toddler on the Block” it works too!

Good Luck and go have a Happy Baby!

* If you are going to buy this book or DVD please click on the link to Amazon on the side bar on the right. If you purchase through that link, then we will get a percentage of the purchase and it will help our family, and help us pay for college! Thank you for looking!

Green Chili Pie (for Breakfast or Brunch)

This is a favorite breakfast food around our house. Mostly sat mornings or it I have time Sundays too! As you can see it went faster then I could take a picture of it!

In a glass backing dish (make sure to spray cause this sticks)

1 7 oz can of diced green chilies (I use 2)

½ lb grated cheddar cheese (I just do a giant plateful)

1 dozen eggs, beaten (you can use less if you don’t have 12)

Spread Chiles on the bottom of the dish. Then lay the shredded cheese on top of the chilies – should be a layer about ½ inch of cheese (loose not packed) Pour beaten eggs evenly over the cheese.

Bake at 350 F about 30-45 mins. I usually do 40 and its fine. Cut and serve, it comes out real hot, so you have to allow time for cooling too. Enjoy!

Bridal & Baby Shower Chicken Salad

This was served at both my kids Baby Showers and is just a fun party / gathering food. Takes a bit of preparation but oh so worth it!

1T oil (I use Veggie Oil)

1 chicken breast (cooked and shredded) – I used 3 Sam’s Club cans once it was fine

¼ c minced onions

½ c fine chopped celery

¼ t ginger (I didn’t have this once and left it out, tasted fine w/o)

1 c mayonnaise

¼ c red wine vinegar

1 ½ t soy sauce

½ to 1 t curry powder depends on your taste

1 8 oz can sliced water chestnuts (I chop them up even more)

1 c chopped pecans (walnuts work fine too)

1 c sliced red grapes

Slice chicken into chunks or shred. Toss oil, onions, celery, ginger, mayonnaise, vinegar, soy sauce and curry powder together. Add chicken, water chestnuts, grapes and pecans, toss again. Serve on rolls. Need to be soft or squishy rolls, croissants are the best (buy the huge package at Costco or Sam’s Club.

Artichokes boiled in a Pot

This is one of my all time favorite meals. Clean your artichokes by running them under hot water. Turn them sideways and chop off the bottom just at the base where the steam starts (don’t chop too far up on the blossom)

Put in a pan with about 1-2 inches of water.

Add about a cup of lemon juice for 3-4 artichokes

Then shake Tabasco Sauce on it to taste. I like a lot.

Garlic salt to taste

Black pepper to taste

Bring to a boil and then a good simmer for approx 45 mins.

Turn the artichoke upside down and stick a fork in the bottom, if it slides in easily its done. Put it on a plate and let it cool off.

Serve with a small bowl with mayonnaise in it and you take a leaf off, use it like a scoop and put a tad of mayonnaise on the bottom of the leaf. Put the leaf in your mouth the curved side of the leaf up (like a spoon). About half way up the leave gently bit down – you are not trying to bite the leaf in half just grab firmly with your teeth, then pull the leaf out and your teeth will scarp the “meat” of the leaf. Do this for all the leaves.

One you eat all the outside leaves, you will get to a point where the leaves are too flimsy and no more meat. Now grab the top and bottom parts of the blossom and bend gently and take the top off the bottom. You will see the “choke” of the artichoke. This is BAD BAD BAD to eat! Take a spoon and scoop out the choke with ONE scoop of the spoon (takes practice to do it in one scoop) you through that part out and put the spoon in the sink or dishwasher right away. Now look close to make sure you got all the choke out. Then (this is the BEST part – so worth all the effort!) you can dip the bottom part of the blossom that was just above the stem in the mayonnaise and eat it! SO Yum!

Homemade Italian Bread Sticks yum!

I got this recipe off an you tube channel I enjoy watching! Thank you Noreen! She is also the one who really inspired me to go ahead and try canning. LOVE watching her cooking and recommend that channel. (http://www.youtube.com/user/atticus9799)

Anyways I got my new Kitchenaid mixer for my 11^th wedding anniversary (I wanted one the whole 11 years!) this was one of the first recipe’s I tried. LOVE it. Enjoy!

In your mixer

3c flour (I tried both bread flour and all purpose flour both are fine)

Add

3T instant yeast

1t salt

1t sugar

1 ¼ c warm water (approx 110-115 degrees F)

1 ½ T Olive Oil

Put on your dough hook for your mixer, lock it down, and turn it on low. Mix about 4 mins. Until the dough starts coming away from the side. Put Olive Oil around a bowl (just use your hands to make sure the bread wont stick to the bowl) and then rub your oily hands all over your ball of dough and place it in the bowl and cover, lets it rise for about 5 mins (builds the glutens)

Oil the backing sheet you are using to cook it on. Preheat oven to 350 degree F.

Place dough on backing sheet and press down and out with your hands filling up the sheet at approximately the same height all around. Put a bit more olive oil on top of the spread out dough. Season with what ever you want! I use

-garlic powder

-Italian seasonings

-sea slat

-parmesan cheese (NOT that giant green bottle – get the shredded real stuff in the refrigerated section! Much more yum!)

Back for 15 mins. EAT!