Frosting

This is how I make frosting it is fast and easy. It makes a great family night treat spread on graham crackers. Or use on cakes, eat off the spoon, etc... I'm sorry there aren't exact amounts...but just try it...it's not that hard.

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2 large spoonfuls of shortening (serving spoon size...like a serving spoon that comes with your silverware sets...have it heaping with shortening...2 times)

1/2 bag of powdered sugar.

a little boiling water (just put a small bowl in the microwave for a few minutes)

1-2 T. vanilla

cocoa (if desired)

food coloring (if desired)

Put shortening and powdered sugar in mixing bowl. Blend well. It should form small balls or be creamed together (either way is fine). Add 1 or 2 T. vanilla and 2 regular size spoonfuls (like what you eat cereal with) of boiling water. Blend. It should now be nice and creamy like frosting is. If it isn't add another spoon of water one at a time and mix until it turns nice and frosting-like.

Now you have to taste it. If it tastes too shortening-like then add some more powdered sugar (just a little at a time). If it tastes too sweet (usually not the case) then add a little more shortening. If needed add a little bit of water to cream it back up.

It should taste like yummy vanilla/white frosting at this point. Now you can add cocoa if you want it chocolate. Or food coloring if you want it different colors. (If you want more than 1 color then split it into separate bowls before adding the food coloring.)

Anyway...give it a try. It really is easy and way cheaper and yummier than canned frosting.

Peanut Butter Bars

This recipe is from Chris (if you don't know who this is...ask me).

3/4 C. shortening

3/4 C. sugar

3/4 C. brown sugar

2 eggs

3/4 C. peanut butter

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 C. flour

1 1/2 C. oats

Peanut butter and Chocolate Frosting

Cream sugars, shortening and 3/4 C. PB. Add eggs and vanilla. Add remaining dry ingredients (do not add more PB or frosting. Spread in jelly roll pan. Bake at 350 degrees for only 12 minutes. Do not overcook. Allow to cool slightly. Spread with a layer of PB while still warm but not hot. Cool completely and top with chocolate frosting.

Chris uses canned choco frosting and I use homemade. I will post that recipe next.

Sorry to anyone sampling these at tonights High Priest social...they got overcooked today...so you get crunchy PB bars...we'll pretend that's the way they were supposed to be!

Mexican Casserole Recipe

1 pound ground beef
1 10 3/4 oz can tomato soup
1 can 16oz Chili
1 16 oz bag Fritos Chips
1 cup Cheddar Cheese Chips

Brown meat and simmer until done.  Drain Grease.  Add Soup and Chili.

Line casserole dish with 1/2 bag of fritos.  Pour the meat mixture.  Add the rest of the Fritos. Top with cheese.  Bake at 400 for 15 minutes

**Our kids begged for 2nds and 3rds of this yummy dinner!**

I served it with a bag of lettuce and ranch dressing!

Favorite Cook Book?

Besides ward cookbooks...do you have a favorite cookbook?  What is it?

Lasagna

1 lb hamb.
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
lasagna noodles
spaghetti sauce
cottage cheese
mozarella, grated

Brown hamb with onion. Drain and rinse.
Spread a little spaghetti sauce in the bottom a glass 9 X 13 pan. Put 3 uncooked noodles on the sauce. Cover noodles with a little sauce. Then half of the meat. some cottage cheese, some mozarella, noodles, sauce, meat, cottage cheese, cheese, noodles, sauce, cheese.
Bake covered with foil at 350 for about an hour to

an hour and a half (when you poke with a fork the noodles should be very soft and easy to poke through). Remove foil and bake for 10 more minutes. Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes before cutting.

Whole wheat noodles take longer. If you run out of sauce, use tomato sauc

e rather than open a whole new can of spaghetti sauce.

Banana Squash

Cut banana squash into the serving size of pieces that you want (smaller than a potato).  Scoop out the "guts".  Place a piece on a piece of tinfoil skin side down.  Put some butter (real butter is best by far!!!) (about the size of a pad of butter you would get at a restaurant to go on your roll) and 1 T. of brown sugar on top of the squash (on the fleshy part that you are going to eat).  Wrap the tinfoil up around it leaving the skin side still down.  Place on a cookie sheet.  Bake at 450 for 1 hour.  Remove from foil, use a knife or fork to remove the flesh from the skin. (You don't eat the skin).  Pour the "juice" on top.  Yum!

Fresh Spaghetti Sauce

So even though our garden looks like the Garden of "WEED"en it really is producing vegetables.  So yesterday I was feeling home-makerly and decided to make spaghetti sauce from fresh tomatoes.  It turned out really good.  Even Jason liked it, which is saying something!

It was from Food.com.  (Fresh Tomato Spaghetti Sauce by Lauralie41)

Here is the original recipe and below is the way I made it (I didn't have all of the fresh hebs and onion, so I used dried).

http://www.food.com/recipe/fresh-tomato-spaghetti-sauce-10837

4 lbs. tomatoes, chopped and peeled
2 med onions
4 cloves garlic
1/4 C. fresh basil
1/4 C. olive oil
1 tsp. salt
4 sprigs parsley
1 T. sugar

Directions:

1. 1
   To cook pasta sauce, heat olive oil over medium heat in a large iron skillet or heavy saucepan.
2. 2
   Add onion, basil, garlic and salt.
3. 3
   Saute until onion is tender, approximately 5 minutes.
4. 4
   Add tomato, parsley and sugar; heat to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, uncovered for about 2 hours, stirring often or until sauce has thickened.
5. 5
   Remove parsley.
6. 6
   Serve over cooked spaghetti or other Italian pasta and top with Parmesan cheese.
   
   
   
   
   HERE'S WHAT I DID...
   4 lbs tomatoes
   2 T. dried onions
   2 tsp. minced garlic (from a bottle)
   4 tsp fresh basil
   1/4 C. canola (I didn't have olive oil)
   1 tsp. salt
   4 tsp. parsley
   1 T. white granulated sugar
   
   
   Boil a big pan of water.  Put tomatoes in water until skin splits open.  Remove tomatoes from water, put in cold water.  Skin will just fall right off the tomatoes.  Core tomatoes.
   
   
   Then I put the tomatoes in the blender (because I don't like chunks).   Pour tomatoe puree in a pan.  Add spices.  Bring to a boil, then simmer for 2 hours.  Let cool.  Reheat and serve over noodles.  
   
   
   I did have to add some water at the end because it was too thick for me.  I also added a lb of cooked hamburger.  I think it would have been good without.  Or with sausage.
   
   
   It was good, I would make it again.  A little labor intensive, not too bad.  And you did have to start 3 or 4 hours ahead of when you wanted to eat. 
   
   
   We also had fresh cucumbers and squash and cooked carrots from the garden (the carrots are not pictures because they weren't quite done cooking when we sat down to eat!)  I felt very self-reliant that night!  It's a good feeling!
   
   
   
   
   

Pretzels

On the top of the incredibly long list of food that my almost 4 year old son won't eat is bread.  He refuses any type of sandwich.  I've found a couple of loopholes, though, in the form of cinnamon rolls (minus the frosting, of course, because it's too "messy" for him) and pretzels.  Rather than run to Sam's Club every time he wants a pretzel, I decided to try making them at home.  A couple of hit and miss tries later, and I've got a great (and EASY!) recipe for you!

Homemade Pretzels

4 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 tsp. white sugar

1 1/4 cups warm water (about 110 degrees F)

5 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 C white sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 TBSP vegetable oil

1/2 C baking soda

4 cups hot water

Kosher salt, for topping

In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast and 1 tsp sugar in the warm water.  Let that sit about ten minutes--until creamy.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, remaining sugar, and salt.  Make a well in the center, then add the oil and yeast mixture.  Mix and form into a dough.  If it's too dry, add water one TBSP at a time.  Knead the dough until smooth--about 7 to 8 minutes.  

(Or, if you're lazy like me, 2 minutes works, too.)

Lightly oil a large bowl, put the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil.  Cover with a warm, damp cloth and let rise in a warm place for about an hour (until it has doubled in size).

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  In a large bowl, dissolve the baking soda in the hot water.  Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface (or just punch it down in the bowl...) and divide into 12 equal parts.  Roll each piece into a long snake-rope and twist into pretzel shape.  (This is easiest by making a U, then taking the top edges and twisting them a couple of times, then fold down to make the pretzel.)

Once the dough is all shaped, dip each one into the baking soda solution and place on a greased cookie sheet.  Sprinkle with Kosher salt (if you don't have it, I've used regular and they still turn out fine--they just don't taste quite as "pretzel-y").

Bake for about 8 minutes, until browned.

*Okay, some notes from experience:  You are supposed to roll the dough out until it's "pencil thin."  Trust me, though, your arms get really tired after a couple of these puppies, so if your pretzels end up being smaller and thicker (like mine), turn the oven down to 400 degrees otherwise they will be REALLY doughy, but burnt on the outside.  Also, in case you're wondering, the point of the baking soda bath is to make them taste like pretzels instead of salty bread.  And lastly, you can skip the Kosher salt step and instead, when they come out of the oven, spread melted butter on them and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.  Delicious either way!

(Sorry about lack of pictures!  My family and I eat these way too fast and I realized I needed a picture a little too late.)