Mexican Spaghetti

So you know those nights when you have nothing planned and you think...I'll make spaghetti?  Yea, last night was one of those nights.

So I started the noodles cooking and the hamburger browning.  After about 15 minutes I sent one of the kids downstairs to grab a jar of spaghetti sauce.  They report back that we don't have any.  I think, yea right?!?!?!

So I go down and check...they were right...NO SPAGHETTI SAUCE!

I look at all the jars on the shelf and try to decide what I can improvise.  Now I could have done a quick stroganoff...but hey, that didn't cross my mind.

So I grabbed a can of green enchilada sauce and think what the heck...lets try to make a sauce out of this.  

I added the Enchilada Sauce to the browned meat and then added some sour cream.

My family all raved about it.  I liked it too.  We will definitely make it again.  I think it would be good over rice also.  Give it a try and comment with how you liked it.

I dubbed it Mexican Spaghetti.

Recipe:

1-2 lbs hamburger (I did 1 for my family of 6...1 was good, but next time I would do 2 lbs)

(1) 28 oz medium hot green chili enchilada sauce (I used Las Palmas, but probably any brand would work)

1 cup sour cream (add more if you want it less spicy and less if you want more spice)

Noodles or rice, cooked

1.  Brown meat. Drain.

2.  Add enchilada sauce and heat through

3.  Add sour cream right at the end, heat through and serve immediately.

4.  Serve over cooked noodles or cooked rice.

Scones

From Kyle T.  Served at the 2016 Ward Campout.

Ingredients

½ Cup Warm Water
½ tsp Sugar
2 Tbs Yeast
1½ Cups Warm Milk
2 Tbs Vegetable Oil
3 tsp Sugar
¼ Cup Water
2 tsp salt
4 to 5 Cups of Flour

Instructions

Dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water and set aside.
Add oil, sugar, yeast mixture, and ¼ cup water to scalded milk.
Mix flour and salt together.
Add enough flour to make a soft dough and let sit for 5 minutes.
Knead lightly again and roll on floured board.
Let it sit for 3 to 5 minutes.
Cut and fry in hot oil.

Swig Sugar Cookies

From Sister Shannon A. (From the Oct 2015 RS Newsletter)

1 cup butter, room temperature

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 1/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup powdered sugar

2 Tablespoons water

2 eggs

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cream of tarter

1 t salt

5 1/2 cups flour

Cream together butter, vegetable oil, sugar, water, eggs. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Slowly add buttered mix to dry. Mix well. Roll into a golf sized ball and place on a cookie sheet.

Combine 1/4 cup sugar and a pinch of salt in a small bowl. Get glass cup. Put bottom of glass cup in sugar/salt mix and then press on cookie-this creates the signature “Swig” cookie.

Bake at 350 for 8 minutes or until barely brown on the bottom.

Swig Sour Cream Frosting

1/2 cup butter softened

3/4 cup sour cream

2 lbs powdered sugar

1 t salt

1/4 cup milk

Red food coloring

Cream together butter, sour cream and salt. Slowly add powdered sugar. When it gets so thick that it’s not frosting- add a splash of milk. Alternate this process until your frosting is desired consistency. Add 1 drop of red food coloring and mix well.

GOAL- Cookies cold, Frosting warm!

White Fruit Cake

Recipe from Gayle B.  Recipe Taught at a class at Souper Sat 2015

1 C. Shortening
1 C. Sugar
5 eggs
1 1/2 C. flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 C. unsweetened pineapple juice
1 tsp salt

Mix shortening and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time.  Sift flour, baking powder and salt.  Gradually add to creamed mixture 1/2 C. at a time alternating with the pineapple juice.  Add desired fruit and nuts such as candied pineapple.

Dutch Pecan Tarts

From Gayle B. Recipe taught at a class for Souper Sat 2015

Crust
3 oz cream cheese
1/2 C. softened butter
1 C. flour
1/4 tsp salt

Mix together.  Measure in small balls and press into miniature muffin tins for the crust.  Make sure you get the edges to the top of tin.

Filling
1 beaten egg
1 T. melted butter
1 tsp. vanilla
2/3 C. chopped pecans
3/4 C brown sugar
pinch of salt

Mix together and spoon inside of crust.  Bake at 325 for 20-25 minutes.

Shirley's Wonderful Carmels

From Gayle B. Recipe taught at a class for Souper Sat 2015

2 C. light corn syrup
1 (14 oz) can Sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 C. milk
1 C. whipping cream
1 C. butter
3 C. sugar
2 tsp. Vanilla
2 C. chopped nuts (optional)

Butter a 9 X 13 glass pan.  set aside.  In a heavy 6 qt pan combine all except vanilla and nuts.  Place over medium heat and stir occasionally with a wooden spoon until it comes to a boil.  Cook stirring constantly to 240 F or soft ball stage.  Remove from heat.  Stir in vanilla and nuts.  Pour without scraping into prepared pan.  Allow to stand until room temperature, or overnight.  Cut into small bite-size rectangles and wrap in wax paper.

She cuts with a metal dough cutter.  She wraps it in wax paper.

Make sure you adjust your thermometer for altitude.  Water boils at sea level at 212 F.  So bring some water to a boil.  When it boils check the temperature of the water.  Adjust according to this chart.
200 F subtract 12 F from recipe
201                 11 F
202                 10
203                  9
204                  8
205                  7
206                  6
207                  5
208                  4
209                  3
210                  2
211                  1
212                  0

Hearty Chicken Noodle Soup

Hearty Chicken Noodle Soup

Mikael brought this to Souper Saturday.  It is from one of the Lion House Cookbooks with a few slight alterations.  My Mom has been making this for years and it is always a hit.

1 1/2 T. Chicken Soup Base (by the boillion)  (Macey's carries it...I will post a pic below)
3 C. Chicken soup stock (by the broth) (I will post a pic below) (I think you could use broth, but it just wouldn't be quite as strong?!?!?!?!)
2 C. chopped carrots (I used the already cut shoestring carrots to save time cutting and cooking...but you can chop them yourself if desired) (1 (10.5 oz) bag of shoestring carrots is 3 1/2 C.)
2 C. chopped celery (I used a mandolin to slice them thin...to save time cutting and cooking)
3/4 C. chopped onion (I used yellow) (It is about 1/2 of a large yellow onion)
2 Cans (10.5 oz each) cream of chicken soup
1/4 C. evaporated milk or 1/2 C. whole milk (I have used skim before)
Roux (see recipe below) (see picture below)
2 C. frozen peas (optional)
2 C. diced cooked chicken
2 1/2 oz (about 4 C.) cooked noodles (I like the homemade style from Maceys...found by the regular noodles)
Pepper to taste

Heat soup base, and stock together.  Add vegetables except peas.  Simmer until vegetables are tender.  Add cream of chicken soup and milk.  Thicken with roux as desired, then add cooked chicken and noodles.  Add pepper to taste.  Makes about 2 1/2 quarts, or 10 (1 cup) servings.  Took me about 1 3/4 hours from start to finish to make.  Not including thawing chicken, but yes including cooking chicken and cooking noodles.

Chicken base

Chicken stock

Roux
Roux is used to thicken the soup.  The amount used depends on individual taste.  I used about 3/4 of the recipe of roux.
Melt 1/2 C. butter in frying pan.  Whisk in 1 C. flour.  Whisk until blended, it will be clumpy.  Store in the refrigerator.  When ready to use, add it to your hot soup a little at a time until you reach your desired consistency.

This is what the roux looks like

Easy peasy potato soup

From Shannon A.

1 30oz. bag of frozen, shredded hash browns {I used Ore Ida}

3 14oz. cans of chicken broth

1 can of cream of chicken soup

1/2 cup onion, chopped

1/4 tsp. ground pepper

1 pkg. cream cheese {don’t use fat free. It WON’T melt!!!}

In a crockpot, combine everything EXCEPT for the cream cheese. Cook for 6-8 hours on low heat. About 1 hour before serving, add cream cheese and keep heated until thoroughly melted. Serve with cheese, sour cream, bacon bits, green onions, or whatever else you think would be good!!
**EASY, DELICIOUS and AMAZING!

Aunt Olive's Soup

I brought this to Souper Saturday yesterday.  Aunt Olive was my Grandma's older sister.  So this recipe has made it through several generations of my family.  The way this recipe was handed down to me was that you make huge batches and bottle them.  A few years ago I experimented with it and made the recipe smaller so you could just make 1 dinner.  I will include both recipes.  It has basically the same ingredients as salsa...so you can grow the same items in your garden.  Sister Dabb has a really similar recipe (the larger canning version), but she does not put the noodles in before canning.  There are advantages to this...you could then use rice or noodles and the noodles don't take up space in your jars.  But the advantage to having the noodles already in the soup are that it makes it easier to open up and have a quick dinner.  I have listed spicy sausage to add...but you could alternately add ground beef or ground turkey or shredded or cubed chicken.  It is also good without meat.  We were brainstorming yesterday and saying it would be good with beans in it also...but I have never tried that.  Please note that the  bottling methods listed have not been approved by the Utah State Extension Office...they are just what my family has always done.

This is the bottling recipe...

1/2 bushel tomatoes

1/4 C. salt

1 C. sugar

1 tsp. pepper

9 C. macaroni (cooked and drained)

3 large bell peppers, diced

1 bunch celery, diced

5 medium onions, diced

1/2 lb. of real butter

Melt butter in large frying pan add vegetables.  Saute until light brown and fully cooked.

Peel tomatoes (can blanch if desired).  Cut into small pieces or blend in blender.

Fully cook macaroni (do not overcook).

Combine all ingredients except macaroni and boil hard for 15 minutes.  Add hot (and drained) macaroni).

Put in bottles.  Process in water bath.  Pints 20 minutes, Quarts 25 minutes.

Makes about 35 pints.

When serving, if desired, you can add any of the following: sausage, hamburger, chicken, cheese.  I also think it is too thick when I open a jar so I will blend a bottle of tomatoes and add that in.

Here is the 1 dinner recipe...

10 tomatoes peeled and blended in blender, OR 2 quarts of bottled tomatoes (with a possibility of 3 total).  If you do fresh tomatoes you may want to have 1 jar of bottled tomatoes on hand just in case it is too thick.

1 T. salt

3 T. sugar

quite a bit of pepper

2 1/2 C. macaroni (or other noodles), cooked and drained

1 bell pepper, any color

2 ribs celery, diced

1 medium yellow onion diced

2 T. oil or butter  (add more if vegetables start to stick while sauteing)

1 tube Jimmy Dean Hot Sausage (by the hot dogs)

1.  To peel the tomatoes you cna blanch them first to make it easier.

2.  Saute vegetables until lightly browned and cooked through.  

3.  Brown meat, drain if desired (I did not for Souper Saturday...but sometimes I do).

4.  Cook noodles through and drain

5.  Combine all ingredients

6.  Boil hard 15 minutes

7.  If not soupy enough when done, add blended up jar of bottled tomatoes.  And heat through.

Instead of the hot sausage you can do hamburger or chicken if desired.  And instead of noodles you can do cooked rice if desired.

If you double this recipe it will completely fill a large crockpot.

Easy Crockpot Fiesta Chicken

Makes  5 cups.  Serves 4-6.

4 chicken breasts (I did 1 lb.)

15.5 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed

15 oz frozen or canned corn, if canned then drain first

15 oz salsa (I did ½ hot and ½ mild and it was a little too spicy…so maybe medium and mild or just mild)

8 oz cream cheese

Take 4 frozen or thawed chicken breasts and put into crock pot.  Add remaining ingredients except cream cheese.  Cook on low for 4-5 hours.  Remove chicken and shred it with 2 forks.  Put chicken back in crock pot.  Add cream cheese, just put it on top.  It will look a little weird at this point.  Let it cook for another ½ hour.  Then stir in the cream cheese and serve over rice or in tortillas.  Recipe from recipezaar.com

Crockpot mexican chicken

I am on a crockpot spree trying to find healthy easy yummy crockpot meals that my family (AKA kids) like also.  Here is really good one I got from my former college roommate.

Crockpot Mexican Chicken

Serves 4-6

4 chicken breasts

2 C. salsa

2 package taco seasoning

Cook on low in crockpot for 4-5 hours on low.  Remove chicken and shred with 2 forks.  Return chicken to crock pot.  Serve in tortillas, over taco salad, on nachos, over rice, quesadillas, etc…

I did 1 C. mild salsa and 1 C. medium salsa and it was perfect.  But if you don't like spicy things then just stick with mild salsa all around.

Parmesan Chicken

This recipe is taken from an old ward cookbook from K. Dabb

4 chicken boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed
1/2 C. melted butter
1 C. Bread crumbs (I usually use italian)
1/2 C. parmesan (I just use the cheap green can stuff)
1/2 C. Shredded cheese
2 tsp. basil
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper (I use coarse)

Dip cubed chicken in melted butter.  In separate bowl combine rest of ingredients.  Roll chicken in dry ingredients.  Place chicken on a cookie sheet.  Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.

California Chicken (Chicken Marinade)

1 C. canola oil
3/4 C. soy sauce
1/2 C. lemon juice
1/4 C. worcestershire sauce
1/4 C. prepared mustard
2 tsp. pepper
6 garlic cloves, smashed through a garlic press (or 3 tsp. minced garlic from a bottle)

Mix all ingredients.  Place 6-8 trimmed boneless skinless chicken breasts in marinade.  Place marinade and chicken in a gallon size ziploc (or cover top of bowl with saran).  Refrigerate overnight (I did mine for about 10 hours and it was great, but you could do a full 24 hours).  Grill on the BBQ on low or medium.  Turn every 5 minutes until cooked through.  Throw the marinade out.  The chicken had good flavor and was really moist.