Ritz Cracker Chicken...

4 chicken breasts
1 packaged sleeve ritz crackers, smashed
1 handful parmesan cheese
1 tsp. ranch dressing seasoning
1/2 stick melted butter

Combine crackers, cheese, and ranch dressing seasoning on a plate. Melt butter in a bowl. If chicken breasts are really thick, pound chicken. Dip chicken in melted butter and then cover in ritz cracker mixture. Line chicken breast in a greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Serve with a side salad and a baked potato.

Amber's Peach Salsa

Recipe from Amber Cragun



Peach Salsa

20-25 small peaches peeled and chopped

12 large tomatoes peeled and chopped

3 cups chopped sweet onion

4 jalapeno peppers, seeded and finely chopped (I just used 1 small can)

3 red peppers (I used red and green)

1 cup finely chopped basil or cilantro

1 cup white vinegar

4-6 cloves garlic finely chopped

3 tsp. ground cumin

1 tsp. cayenne pepper

3 T. lime juice

salt and pepper to taste (I like a lot of pepper)

3 1/4 cups sugar

You could also add a package of pectin if you wanted it a little less soupy. I also added a couple of drained cans of chopped tomatoes because I like a lot of tomatoes. I boil everything for about 20-25 mins. and then place in warm jars with warm lids and set upside down until the next morning.

Calzones (Pizza Crust)

1 package quick rise yeast

1 cup warm water (110-115 degrees)

1/2 spoonful of sugar

2 1/2-3 cups flour

1/2 tsp. salt

2 TBS. oil

Mix yeast with water water and sugar. Let sit for a few minutes then pour into mixing bowl. Add salt. Mix and slowly add flour and oil. Depending on the temperature of your house etc you may not need a full 3 cups of flour. You don't want dry dough but not too moist. Roll on flour surface and shape into a circle. Place on baking sheet. On half of the circle add pizza sauce, cheese and toppings of your choice. Fold dough over toppings and press shut. Bake at 375 degree for 15-20 minutes. Cut and serve.

For pizza just roll onto pizza stone top with sauce and toppings and bake.

CANDACE: I tried this recipe out and it was easy peezy and delicious. I was able to put "kid" toppings on 1/2 of the crust and my kind of toppings on the other.

Strawberry Peach Crisp

Recipe from Angie Hansen


Strawberry Peach Crisp
1/2 c. flour divided
2 15 oz. cans sliced peaches, drained
2 cups halved strawberries
3/4 c. plus 2 Tbsp. firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 c. butter, cold
3 c. Post Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds cereal, lightly crushed

Preheat oven to 350. Remove 2 Tbsp of the flour; set aside. Toss peach slices with strawberries, 3/4 cup brown sugar and remaining flour in a large bowl. Place in ungreased 8x8 square baking dish.

Mix reserved 2 Tbsp flour and the 2 Tbsp brown sugar in separate large bowl. Cut in the butter until mixture resembles course crumbs. Add cereal; stir until well blended (I used my hands to sort of squish it all together). Sprinkle over fruit mixture.

Bake 25 mins. or until topping is lightly browned. Serve with ice cream or whipped cream.

Marshmallow Cheesecake...

Crust
1 package graham crackers crushed
1 stick butter, melted
¼ cup brown sugar

Combine and spread in bottom of an 8x13 cake pan
Bake at 300 for 10 minutes
COOL, then chill

Cheesecake
1 8oz package cream cheese
1 cup confectioners sugar

Combine cream cheese and sugar – Mix well

Whip 1 pint whipping cream and FOLD into cream cheese mixture
Add 2 cups mini-marshmallows

Refrigerate

Cover with one can cherry, raspberry, or strawberry filling when ready to serve

Mexican Bean Salad...

1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, drained
1 (15 ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 (10 ounce) package frozen corn kernels
1 red onion, chopped

DRESSING: (I halved this and it was plenty)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 clove crushed garlic
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 tablespoon ground black pepper
1 dash hot pepper sauce
1/2 teaspoon chili powder

DIRECTIONS:
In a large bowl, combine beans, bell peppers, frozen corn, and red onion.In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, red wine vinegar, lime juice, lemon juice, sugar, salt, garlic, cilantro, cumin, and black pepper. Season to taste with hot sauce and chili powder.Pour olive oil dressing over vegetables; mix well. Chill thoroughly, and serve cold.

Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes...

I got the recipe from here

-1 box of your favorite moist WHITE cake mix. (it makes it easier than making them from scratch)

-6oz package of fresh raspberries.

Combine ingredients with the cake mix according to the instructions on the box. (oil, milk, eggs).

Take half of the raspberries and mash them slightly with a fork. Add to cake mixture and mix for 2 minutes. Divide in baking cups, and bake according to the instructions on the box (usually around 20 minutes at 350 F.

While the cupcakes are baking you can prepare the YUMMY Lemon Buttercream.

You'll need:

-2 1/2 cups icing sugar

-1/4 cup butter (room temp is best for mixing)

-1/2 cup "Fluff" marshmallow topping

-2 tbsp whipping cream

-1 or 2 drops yellow food color, for fun.

-zest of 1 lemon

Combine all ingredients and mix with electric mixer until smoooooth. You'll want to taste test.... for no other reason than pure enjoyment. :) **A little trick. If you have a tool for icing, with a rosette tip, it's best to put the icing in the fridge for 15 minutes so it thickens up a little.

**If you're not into lemons, try adding a few tbsp of raspberry puree, and omit the zest. (i've tried this with strawberries, and it's fabulous!)

Allow 10 or more minutes for the cupcakes to cool, before icing them (or the icing will melt, and run off!)

Top each cupcake with one beautiful raspberry.

***Emily's Findings...the raspberry flavor in the cupcakes was not strong enough for me. I think next time I will try some raspberry extract or add more raspberries. I had to double the frosting in order to have enough to pipe onto the cupcakes. Also the frosting was a little tricky for me to come together. I had to use more whipped cream then the recipe called for. The lemon flavor wasn't strong enough for me with just the zest. I added the juice of half a lemon. Next time I think I will try the juice of a 1/4 of a lemon and go from there.

Not Yo Mama’s Banana Pudding

Love this recipe-- from Shelly Brown!

Not Yo Mama’s Banana Pudding

from Paula Deen


Ingredients:

1 12-ounce container frozen whipped topping thawed, or equal amount sweetened whipped cream
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
2 cups milk
1 5-ounce box instant French vanilla pudding
6-8 bananas, sliced
2 bags Pepperidge Farm Chessmen cookies

Directions

Line the bottom of a 13x9x2-inch dish with 1 bag of cookies and layer bananas on top.

In a bowl, combine the milk and pudding mix and blend well using a handheld electric mixer. Using another bowl, combine the cream cheese and condensed milk together and mix until smooth. Fold the whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture. Add the cream cheese mixture to the pudding mixture and stir until well blended. Pour the mixture over the cookies and bananas and cover with the remaining cookies. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Shelly leaves out bananas because they turn brown and slimy.... Hilary can't imagine it without the bananas... ♥

No Bake Peanut Butter Pie

 





Ingredients:

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar 1 cup peanut butter 1 cup milk

1 (16 ounce) package frozen whipped topping, thawed 2 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crusts

Directions:

1.	Beat together cream cheese and confectioners' sugar. Mix in peanut butter and milk. Beat until smooth. Fold in whipped topping.
2.	Spoon into two 9 inch graham cracker pie shells; cover, and freeze until firm.

Hilary's Notes: I used a chocolate oreo crust (in same section as the graham crusts). I also chopped up reese's peanut butter cups and drizzled chocolate syrup on top. It would be heavenly to mix the chopped up reese's in the peanut butter part! I think this tastes like ice cream. Also... (I'm long winded tonight!), I was looking for a picture to post and turns out THE PIONEER WOMAN makes this pie too - here is a link to hers: Another Pie

Lemon Drop Cookies

I found this small recipe website with yummy recipes. This had such glowing praise, I had to try them. It made around 90 cookies! We made plates of cookies and passed them out for FHE... they kept coming and coming!!! I bought my lemon drops in bulk at Winco and 48 lemon drops = six ounces. You can find anything out on the internet. I ♥ the internet!

Hilary

 

From Website:

These cookies have pretty much made me famous. OK, so not famous. I mean, it isn't even my recipe. But, they are by far the cookie that have gotten the most reaction from others. People simply love them. In college I discovered Lemon Drop cookies from a place called Cookies By Design, they were my obsession. My roomates served them at my bridal shower. I tried for years and years to find a recipe close but never did. Several years ago my mom bought a cookbook ("5 star recipes from well-known Latter Day Saints") and this recipe was in it. I have to make a plan to give these away before I even make them. I could honestly eat them all day and all night long.

Lemon Drop Cookies

2 c. sugar

1 1/2 cup butter flavored shortening

3 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. lemon extract

4 c. flour

1 1/2 tsp soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp. salt

Finely chopped zest of one lemon

1 (6-oz) package lemon drops (sometimes these are tricky to find, I usually keep two or three bags in my pantry)

2 c. powdered sugar

juice of two lemons

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In mixing bowl, cream sugar, shortening, and eggs; add flavorings. Stir in dry ingredients, lemon zest, and crushed lemon drops (I crush them in my blender). Roll into balls, flatten slightly, and bake on parchment lined (if you don't use parchment, cookies will stick to pan) baking sheet for 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool slightly on pan for a couple of minutes. Make a glaze by mixing powdered sugar with lemon juice. Brush glaze over cookie tops. Let cookies cool completely.

makes 4 to 5 dozen cookies.

"THE" Punch

I make AMAZING punch. There, I said it.
I’m the Punch Master. Queen of Punch. Snoop Punch. David Punchuleta. I bet you didn’t know this about me, but I seriously rock the punch bowl like no other.
I invented one very special recipe that I’m about to share with you. And I have to tell you—you’re really lucky because all you have to do is read the recipe, buy the stuff, put it together, and serve it at a party and have everyone tell you that it is the best punch in the universe.
Whereas I had to create, puzzle, reflect, and ponder the recipe in the first place in my special Punch Laboratory. I had to contact chemists from ivy league universities to perfect the chemical makeup of this recipe. I had to search the globe for the exact ingredients. I had to throw out hundreds of thousands of batches of lesser punches on my quest to attain the ideal ice-to-punch ratio.
But now that I’ve arrived at Punch Perfectdom, it’s hard for me to contain it and keep it to myself. I feel that I owe it to the world to share. You all have been so nice to me lately, and I feel so intoxicated with goodwill, that I am ready to freely give you this recipe for the betterment of mankind. If the war suddenly ends, I will know that The Punch has done its job.
OK, are you ready?

The Punch
Ingredients:
1 can frozen pina colada concentrate, thawed (Bacardi makes a good one)
1 can frozen orange pineapple juice concentrate, thawed
4 liters of diet lemon-lime soda (That’s two 2-Liters for the mathematically challenged.)
1 bag of pebble ice (You can buy it at Sonic Drive-In or at most grocery stores in the deli or meat departments.)
1 bag of frozen raspberries

And now for the directions:
*Pour the thawed concentrates into your punchbowl and stir.
*Use one of the empty cans and fill it with water four times and add it to the mixture. Stir.
*Add your diet soda to the mixture. (You can use regular sugar-filled soda if you want, but I think it gets too sweet and you will also feel guilty when you fill your glass for the sixteenth time. Which you WILL.)
*Next, add about half your bag of pebble ice.

(NOTE: Please do not insult The Punch by using crappy ice cubes from your freezer. The Punch will hate you forever.) (ANOTHER NOTE: Please do not screw up the order and add the ice before the soda. You will get an ugly foam at the top of your punch bowl.) (ONE MORE NOTE: I’m sorry if it seems like I’m micro-managing this recipe. It’s just that I have already suffered bad punch experiences so that you won’t have to. I micro-manage because I care.) Let’s see….where were we? Oh, yes. We’re ready for the crowning ingredient…
*Add your frozen raspberries to the top.

Voila! You have just created the Mona Lisa of Punch!
Your punch should be a lovely dark yellow at the bottom of your punch bowl, light lemony yellow in middle, almost white on the top, and then bright magenta on the very, very top! So pretty!
And then, when you start serving the punch with a ladle, it all mixes together and becomes this dreamy pink color.
And then, when you lift the punch bowl to your lips when it is almost gone to swallow the last few drops of punch, it is an even darker pink because the raspberries have really mixed in.
And then, when you pass out on the floor because you tipped the punch bowl too far and lost your balance, falling backward to the floor with the punch bowl hitting you square in the jaw—you will see lots of lovely yellow stars and magenta raspberries floating above your head.
Go now. Make Punch.

(Hilary here... I'm not this funny - this is straight how I copied it! And, p.s. I thawed my frozen raspberries and liked it way more than having frozen raspberry ice cubes.)

Strawberry Cream Puff Cake

I made this tonight from Mel's Kitchen Cafe blog... it was so good. Mine wasn't quite this pretty - I couldn't get my whipping cream part to get as thick and stiff... but still yum! I used lemon zest instead of orange and really loved it.

From Mel's Kitchen Cafe:

"The base of the cake, baked in a springform pan is exactly, exactly like a cream puff shell: tender and light. It holds up perfectly for the silky center made of whipped cream cheese and cream and infused with orange zest. Topped with strawberries, this was a masterpiece – and a pretty easy one at that. The presentation is stunning and the taste and flavors are out of this world.

All I can say is, You Really Must Make This.



Strawberry Cream Puff Cake


Cream Puff Base:
5 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup water
1 tablespoon sugar
2/3 cup flour
3 eggs

Cream Cheese Mixture:
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon fresh orange zest
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2/3 cup powdered sugar

For the cream puff layer, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bring the butter, water and sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add the flour all at once and stir quickly until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the pan. Remove the pan from the heat and stir the mixture until smooth. Let cool for 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until the mixture is shiny with a satiny sheen. Don’t overbeat. Lightly grease the bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan (or in a pinch, you could use a 9-inch circle cake pan). Using an offset spatula, spread the mixture on the bottom and one inch up the sides of the prepared pan. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and prick pastry with a toothpick 10-12 times. Return to the oven and bake 5-10 minutes more until golden brown but not overbaked (you can insert a toothpick into the center and if it comes out with sticky dough, it still needs longer in the oven). Cool completely.
For the cream cheese mixture, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Gradually add the powdered sugar (if you want to ensure there are no lumps, sift the powdered sugar into the cream cheese) and beat with the cream cheese until mixture is smooth and light. Add the remaining ingredients and beat until stiff peaks form. Spread onto the cooled cream puff shell.
Top with fresh sliced strawberries (I mixed 2 cups of strawberries with 1 teaspoon sugar and let them hang out in the fridge while I was prepping the cake) or you can use a 16-ounce bag of frozen strawberries that have been thawed. Mix the thawed strawberries and juice with 1-2 teaspoons sugar and bring to a simmer in a saucepan. Cook until slightly thickened. Cool completely and use as topping for the cake.

Ginger Snaps

3/4 canola or vegetable oil
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. cloves

The dough may seem "greasy" but remember that this is good oil. Mix as usual. Bake as usual. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Creamy Chicken Pesto Pizza

Recipe from here

1 Thin Crust Pizza Dough (Shelly's note: make your own or purchase one-I get mine at Papa Murphy's and it even comes with the pan to cook it on!)

1 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast, Cooked and sliced thin
1/2 Cup Sun-Dried Tomates, sliced
2 Cloves Roasted Garlic, Minced (see note)
1 Cup Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
1/2 Cup Shredded Provolone Cheese (If I can't find any I just ask the deli to slice off a hunk instead of doing sandwich slices so that I can shred it at home.)
1 Tb Unsalted Butter
2 Tb Flour
1/3 Cup Pesto
1 Cup Heavy Cream
2 Tb Parmesan Cheese, Grated fine

*Roast garlic by slicing off the top of the cloves, placing on a cookie sheet, cover with foil, in a 400 degree oven for 30-35 min or until soft*

In a saucepan over medium heat add butter and let it start to bubble. Add flour and whisk for 1 min. It should form a ball. Slowly whisk in the heavy cream, pesto and parmesan. Add salt and pepper if needed and taste for flavor. You can add a bit more pesto or cream depending on how strong you want the flavors.

Press out the pizza dough and cover with creamy pesto sauce. As much or as little as you like. Top with cheeses, chicken, roasted garlic and sun-dried tomatoes. Bake 10-12 min at 450 or according to your dough's directions!

Shelly's notes: You could skip the sun dried tomatoes and just add sliced tomatoes before or after cooking. Artichokes, red onion and/or shrimp would be good on this too.

Shelly's Weekly Menu (yep, I'm cooking again!)

Sun/Mon: Creamy Baked Chicken Taquitos w/ Cilantro Lime Rice
Tues: Marinated Pork Chops with green salad
Wed: Late Night Pasta with green salad
Thurs: Creamy Chicken Pesto Pizza (hint: purchase an uncooked crust from Papa Murphy's...$2!)
Fri/Sat Eat out or leftovers