Cherry Dessert or Salad

This is a recipe that I got from my Grandma. I always loved it when it was on the holiday dinner menu!  My family serves it as a "topping" for angel food cake, but it can be eaten by itself as well (great Summer salad)!

Cherry Dessert (Topping)

Ingredients:

1 large carton cool whip

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 can (1lb, 4oz) crushed pineapple - drained

1 can cherry pie filling

Mix it all together in a large bowl and refrigerate (yep...that's it!).  It will keep for several days.  Can add nuts if you would like.  Serve with angel food cake or as a salad.

What is one of YOUR favorite family recipes?

Cupcakes

I have a daughter that doesn't like cake, which means she doesn't like cupcakes either.  My friend, Summer, made some super adorable cupcake toppers to match the "WIPEOUT" Theme my little7 year old wanted for her party.  Do you see my dilemma!?

Enter blogland.  I love this place.  I found this cake and decided if they could make a cake (which is SUPER cute) out of rice krispies, I could make cupcakes!!

 

  Source: eighteen25

 

Pretty cute, huh!!??

Cupcake Toppers made by Sugar Britches Designs.

Homemade Dog Biscuits

The kids and I have been enjoying our Summer Fun List again this year. (You can see our 2009 list here.)  Recently, we crossed off "make a gift" by making Homemade Dog Biscuits and delivering them to the neighborhood dogs.  Rumor has it they were a hit! 

Basic Dog Biscuit Recipe

 Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups unbleached flour

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup cornmeal

1/2 cup skim milk powder

1 Tablespoon (or 1 pkg) dry yeast

3 1/2 cups lukewarm chicken or meat broth

Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm chicken or meat broth. The richer this broth is, the better your dog will like the biscuits.  Let yeast broth mixture set 10 minutes.  Then stir in flour mixture (which is everything else).  Roll resulting dough out 1/4" thick.  Cut dog biscuit shapes from dough.  Brush biscuits with egg wash.  Bake on greased cookie sheets at 300 degrees for 45 minutes.  Then turn off oven and leave in overnight to finish hardening (we made our in the morning and then let them set all day).  Makes 60 medium-sized biscuits.

Kid-Friendly Snack

Apples with peanut butter and sprinkles.  This is a quick, fun snack!  You could use red, white, and blue sprinkles and it would be a fun treat for the 4th of July!

Rolled Meatloaf

I wasn't a big meatloaf fan, until I tried this recipe. It's delicious! Five out of five people devoured it at my house. That's a keeper, folks!

Ingredients:
2 lbs. lean ground beef
2 eggs
3/4 c. oatmeal
1/2 c. tomato juice
2 Tbsp. parsley flakes
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
8 thin slices ham
6 oz. grated mozzarella cheese
1 c. spaghetti sauce

Beat eggs, add tomato juice, oatmeal, and spices.  Stir.

Mix well into meat.

Pat mixture into 10x12" rectangle on waxed paper.

Arrange ham on top, then sprinkle cheese over.

Roll at short end, lifting paper.

Pinch seam together (the original recipe doesn't say to do this, but it just seems like you should).

Place roll, seam side down in pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes.  Drain off liquids.  Pour spaghetti sauce over meat.  Bake 10-15 minutes more.  Slice and serve. 

It was gone before I could get an "after" picture!  Let me know if you try it!

Tie Dye Cupcakes

I made these tie dye cupcakes for my daughter to take to school to celebrate her 10th birthday.  It's times like these that I'm thankful to live in a small town that lets you take in homemade goodies.  They were fun to make and she was so excited to take them to school. You can find the recipe here.

Oh, and for the frosting, I just bought the Duncan Hines Whipped Frosting.  It was easy...and sometimes, like when you are making cupcakes at 10pm the night before they are needed, mom's need easy!

Super Bowl Football Cake Pops

We had some friends over to watch the Super Bowl.  I decorated the table with Green Bay Packers on one side and Pittsburgh Steelers on the other.  We found food that was "ethnic" to each area that the teams were from.  The middle of the table was divided with this (the sign was painted by my 9 year old)...

I found the tutorial for the footballs here.  They were a bit time consuming to make, but yummy and super cute!!  My husband kept informing me that a Super Bowl party wasn't supposed to be "cute"!  What does he know!?  Anyway, they tasted like a Reese's Peanut Butter cup and when he tasted them, it was decided that we could do "cute"!!  HA!

More Super Bowl ideas tomorrow!

Savory Chicken Squares

Here's what you need to make 4 squares...

3 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 Tbs Butter, softened

2 cups cubed cooked chicken

1 Tbs chopped fresh chives or onion

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon chopped pimientos, if desired

1 can (8 oz) refrigerated crescent rolls

1 Tbs Butter, melted

3/4 cup seasoned croutons, crushed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Then, start by cooking your chicken in the skillet.  Just in case you're thinking that looks like more than 2 cups of chicken, you're right.  I double the recipe for my family...making 8 squares.

 In medium bowl, mix cream cheese and 1 tablespoon softened butter; beat until smooth. Add chicken, chives/onions, salt, pepper, milk and pimientos; mix well. (I didn't have any pimientos.)

 Separate dough into 4 rectangles.  Firmly press perforations to seal.

Spoon 1/2 cup chicken mixture onto center of each rectangle. 

Pull 4 corners of dough to center of chicken mixture; twist firmly. Pinch edges to seal. 

Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Brush tops of squares with 1 tablespoon melted butter; sprinkle with crushed croutons (I used Italian Bread Crumbs instead of crushed croutons).

Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.  As you can see, some of mine didn't get pinched together well enough.  No worries...they still taste fantastic!!

TACO SOUP

TACO SOUP

2 lbs hamburger (brown in skillet, drain grease)
2 cans Fire Roasted Tomatoes
2 cans Black Beans
2 cans Mexicorn
1 taco seasoning pack
1 ranch dip pack
1 jar cheese dip (found in the chip aisle)

Throw it all together in the crockpot. Cook on low for 4-6 hours. Serve with tortilla chips.

Melted Snowman Cookies

I saw these Melted Snowmen Cookies here and just had to make them. So fun!! She used Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix, but I used this recipe instead. I ran out of white flour, so mine ended up being 1/2 white and 1/2 wheat. The other adaption I made was to use mini chocolate chips for the buttons. Can you tell I wasn't prepared when I started!? :)

Hamburger Soup

Since my last post had so many pictures, I'll overcompensate by having NONE in this one! :) I got this recipe from a friend and made if for the first time tonight...it was a HIT! I love having soup when the weather turns cold. What is your favorite soup? Feel free to share a link to the recipe! Hint, hint.

HAMBURGER SOUP

Ingredients:

2 cans cream of potato soup

1 pound of ground beef (I used 2 lbs on accident...it worked too)

1 pound bacon

4 cups milk

1 cup sliced/shredded carrots

1 cup sliced celery

onion (I used 1/2 and onion because I have little ones that complain if they can SEE or SMELL them in their food!!)

salt and pepper to taste

Brown hamburger meat with chopped onion...drain. Fry bacon...crumble. Mix all remaining ingredients together in crockpot. Add hamburger/onion mixture and bacon pieces. Cook on low for the day or high if you wait till the last minute like me!! Really, you're just waiting for it to heat up and the veggies to soften!

Short and Sweet

Problem: "Picky Eater" won't eat his cooked carrots.
Solution: Squirt a little bit of syrup in and stir. Problem solved. He ate every little carrot. :)

I used the Sugar Free variety...does that count as healthy!!??

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

5 out 5 people in my house liked dinner tonight. That's rare. ;) Now, that's a recipe worth sharing!

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas
2 c. cooked shredded chicken breast
1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese
1 (4 oz) can diced green Chilies
2 c. shredded Mexican style cheese
1 rounded T. dried onions
8-10 medium flour tortillas
1 (10 oz) can mild green enchilada sauce

Combine chicken, cream cheese, green Chilies, and onions in skillet on med-low heat. Cook until thoroughly mixed and creamy.

Place a pinch of shredded cheese (I did more than a pinch, because we LOVE cheese) and an even amount of mixture in each tortilla and roll.

Place rolled tortillas in 9x13 baking pan.

Pour enchilada sauce evenly over tortillas. Cover with remaining shredded cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or until bubbly. ENJOY!! This would be a great meal for your group at Maple Memories!

Lemon Berry Pie

My friend had a great idea for her son's birthday party...he loves pie, so she hosted a Pie Party!! Each family made a pie to share AND she even had take home containers so we could take home some of the leftovers!! Mmmmmm!!! Here's what we (we, meaning my wonderful husband) made:

LEMON BERRY PIE

1/2 (4 oz) Cream Cheese, cubed, softened

1 tablespoon milk

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons grated lemon peel

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 tub (8 oz) Cool Whip, thawed

1 ready-to-use graham cracker crust (6 ounces or 9 inch)

1 pint strawberries

2 cups cold milk

2 pkgs (4-serving size) Vanilla or Lemon Flavor Instant Pudding and Pie Filling (we used lemon)

BEAT cream cheese, 1 Tbs milk, and sugar in medium bowl with wire whisk until smooth. Stir in lemon peel and juice. Gently stir in 1 1/2 cups of the whipped topping. Spread evenly onto bottom of crust. Reserve a few strawberries for garnish, if desired; cut remaining strawberries in half. Press strawberry halves into cream cheese layer.

POUR 2 cups milk into large bowl. Add pudding mixes. Beat with wire mix 1 minute. Gently stir in 1 cup of the whipped topping. Spoon over strawberries in crust.

REFRIGERATE 4 hours or until set. Garnish with remaining whipped topping and reserved strawberries just before serving.

Cute little bunny cupcakes.

HAPPY EASTER!!!!!

Here's what you need to make these adorable Bunny Cupcakes (thanks, Kari, for giving me the idea)!! Cake Mix (we used white, but pick your favorite), frosting (again...we used white, but pink would be cute too!), pretzel sticks, pink sugar crystals, BIG and SMALL marshmallows, pink M&M's, mini chocolate chips. You could also sprinkle coconut flakes on them for fur. If your kids will let you. Mine didn't! HA!



Bake cupcakes. Let them cool and then frost. While they were cooling, we made the bunny ears. Take a large marshmallow and cut it in 1/2. This leaves you with 2 sticky sides that you dip into the pink sugar crystals. The shape they make when you cut them looks JUST like the inside of a rabbits ear!





Next, you stick a pretzel into the marshmallow so that you will have something to "attach" the ears with. I forgot to take a picture of this, so had to "remove" an ear from one of our bunnies for the next shot! It looks like one of my kids sucked on the pretzel, but I promise they did not (at least not that I saw!)!!!

Once you've frosted the cupcakes and made the ears, stick the ears into the cupcake. Add mini chocolate chips for eyes, an M&M for the nose, and 2 mini marshmallows for their cute little puffy cheeks! This is where you would sprinkle on the coconut if your kids will let you!

SO CUTE!!! And completely edible!! :)

HAPPY EASTER!!!