Zucchini Bread

2 cups grated zucchini
3 eggs
1 cup oil
3 tsp. vanilla
2 cups sugar
3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
3 tsp. cinnamon

Beat eggs until foamy and light. Add zucchini, oil, vanilla, and sugar. Mix lightly. Mix in flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Divide batter evenly between 2 greased loaf pans. Bake at 325 for 1 hour.

Apple Crisp

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1 cup oatmeal
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 cup butter
4 apples

Mix dry ingredients with butter using your hands.
Butter 9x13 baking dish.
Slice apples thin and layer in the pan as such- apples, butter mixture, apples, butter mixture.
Bake at 375 for 35 minutes.

Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

New Years Snack Ideas

Does anyone have some yummy snack recipes that would be good for a New Years Eve party?

Cake Bites

What you'll need:

Cake mix (I used Devil's Food)

Eggs

Vegetable oil

Frosting- I prefer the Whipped Chocolate

Melting Chocolate- I prefer Guittard milk chocolate wafers

Toothpicks- the plastic ones with the spears on the end work great!

Wax paper

Plastic Spoon

Directions:
-Start by baking the cake according to the directions on the box. Make sure you grease and flour the pan so the cake is easy to remove.
-Once the cake is baked, pull it out of the oven and let it cool for about 20-30 minutes.
-Dump the cake into a large mixing bowl and add 2 spoon fulls of frosting and begin mashing the frosting into the cake with your hands.
-Once all of the frosting is mixed into the cake and it is moist you can begin rolling the mixture into balls with the palms of your hands.
-Place the ball onto a baking sheet or plate lined with wax paper. (You'll be needing to put it into your freezer so whatever will fit is what you should place it on.)
-I prefer to flatten the bottom of the ball and shape the ball into more of a cylinder shape (as shown below).
-Once you have filled the baking sheet or plate with the cake bites place it in the freezer and let it sit for 30-40 minutes until the cake bites have hardened.
-When you are ready to coat the cake bites with chocolate I suggest only taking out 5 or 6 at a time so the rest can keep hard in the freezer.
-You'll need to create a double broiler by placing a metal mixing bowl on top of a saucepan that has water in it. Set it on low-medium heat.

-Then place your Melting chocolates in the bowl and begin melting them.
-Using the toothpicks with the spear on the end, poke the toothpick into the bottom of the cake bite and up through it almost to the top.
-Then stir it around in the melted chocolate until it is completely coated

-Remove the excess chocolate off by tapping the toothpick on the side of the bowl- gently.
-Then carefully scrape the cake bite off of the toothpick and onto a plastic spoon, then slide it off the spoon and back onto the wax paper. This will help reduce the amount of chocolate that will puddle around the bottom of the cake bite.
-Place the tray of coated cake bites in a cool area to harden.
-Repeat until you are finish with all the cake bites from the freezer.
-Wait about 2-3 hours after coating the cake bites before eating.

Here is the finished product.

Ham & Mozzarella Rolls

What you'll need:

Rhodes White Dinner Rolls

Thin Sliced Ham

Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Melted Butter

Finely Shredded Parmesan Cheese

Italian Seasoning

-Take the rolls out of the freezer and let them soften a little bit, you don't want them to start rising.
-Preheat the oven to 350˚
-Once the rolls are soft enough flatten them with your hands and stretch them a little to give you some surface area for the ham and cheese.
-Take a piece of ham and bunch it up so it will fit in the middle of the dough.
-Take a pinch or mozzarella cheese and place it on top of the ham.
-Then take the edges of the dough and pinch them up around the ham and cheese, enclosing them inside the middle.
-Pinch the ends of the dough together so it seals the end of the dough. You now have a little ball.
-Place the rolls on a baking sheet with the pinched end on the bottom.
-Spread some melted butter on the top of the roll then sprinkle it with the finely shredded Parmesan cheese and Italian seasoning.
-Bake in the oven until the tops start to turn a golden brown.

This is how they should look when finished.

Hot Ham and Swiss

Roll:

8-10 soft dinner rolls

1 pkg thinly sliced ham

Sliced Swiss cheese

Make sandwiches and put in casserole dish/pan. Make Topping below.

Topping:

½ c. butter, Melted

2T Worchestershire sauce

Less than 1 T poppy seeds

A few shakes of Garlic Salt

Mix melted butter and other sauce ingredients and pour over sandwiches.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes with foil cover, then remove foil and bake 5 more minutes.

Enjoy!

Runza Casserole

This is one of my families faves. It is so good and really easy to make.

2 pkgs. crescent rolls
3/4 C. chopped onion
1 sack of cabbage ( this does have a bit of carrots in it.)
1 C. mild or med. cheddar cheese, shredded.
1 1/2 pound hamburger
1 can cream of mushroom soup

In a skillet you brown the hamburger and onion until done. Add cabbage and soup and stir until well blended. ON the bottom of a 9x13 pan, put the first pkg. of crescent rolls. Put the meat on that and then add the cheese. Place the 2nd pkg. of rolls on top of this and bake at 350* for 30 mins.

Sugar Cookies and Frosting

Sugar Cookies--

1 cup butter or margarine
1 1/2 cup sugar
Cream together then add:

1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
Mix then add:

2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
5 cups flour- add 1 cup at a time, mix, then add another cup

Mix together.
Chill in fridge for at least 1 hour.
Roll out on floured surface.
Cut out cookies and bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes.


Buttercream Frosting--

4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 c. margarine
1/2 c. shortening
1 tsp. vanilla
milk

Cream margarine, shortening, and vanilla together until as smooth as possible.
Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time.
Add 1 to 2 Tbls. of milk to thin frosting to desired consistency.
Add food coloring for desired effect.

No Bake Cookies

2 c. sugar
1/2 c. margarine
3 T. cocoa
1/2 c. milk

Bring to a boil in a medium saucepan. Boil for 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in:

3 c. quick rolled oats (or 3 1/2 c. regular oats)

Cover pan with lid and let stand 5 minutes. Then stir in:

1 t. vanilla

Scoop with cookie scoop onto waxed paper and let cool. Makes about 24 cookies.

Hamburger Bun Pizza

This isn't really a recipe, just an idea for an easy meal.
Growing up we always used to make Hamburger Bun Pizzas
I usually make pepperoni pizzas but you could change it up with any toppings.

"Witches brew"

This is a Great Idea for School Parties...

I do this every year in Boston's Class, ever since Kindergarten and the Kids LOVE it...

Ghost's blood {Cherry 7 up}

Spiders {spider rings}

Worms & Guts {gummy worms}

Vampire baby teeth {tips of candy corn}

Vampire blood {red food coloring}

Frankensteins hand {frozen ice from a glove}

Mummy Dust {sugar}

Bat eyes {ice cubes with blueberries}

and the best part...

Witches Breath {dry ice}

Cast a spell and then the kids get to drink it!!

Scones

1 cup scalded milk
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 yeast cakes
1/4 cup water (lukewarm)
5 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup margarine
2 eggs, beaten

Heat milk, sugar, salt and butter and let cool to lukewarm. Dissolve yeast in water in separate bowl. Stir into milk mixture. Add eggs and half of flour, mix thoroughly; then add enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead a few minutes and let rise. Roll out 1/2 inch thick dough. Cut into diamond or round shapes and let rise then deep fry until golden brown.

Onion Rings

1 cup flour
3/4 cup milk
1 egg
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder

Cut rings in circles. Dip in mixture and drop in hot grease, flip over when underside begins to brown. Place on paper towel to dry.

Autumn Stew

This is probably my favorite thing to make in the fall time. Perfect for a chilly day.

1 lb. stew meat
2 celery stalks (diced)
1 small onion (chopped)
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 28oz canned tomatoes (stewed or whole)
1/4 tsp. pepper
3 c. water
1/4 cup  A-1 Sauce
3 large carrots (sliced)
3 tsp. Worchestershire sauce
3 potatoes (diced)

Brown beef in large pan. Add onions and cook 5 min. Drain fat.
Combine tomatoes, water, carrots, potatoes, celery, and seasonings.
Mix thoroughly. Bring to boil, cover and simmer 25 minutes or longer until flavors blend.

The longer it cooks the better the flavor, or put in fridge after cooking and heat up the next day.

Grandma's Chocolate Cake

2 C. sugar
2 T. Crisco (rounded)
2 eggs
2 ½ c. flour
8 t. cocoa
2 t. baking soda
1 C. milk
1 T. white vinegar
(or just use 1 c. buttermilk)
1 T. vanilla
1 C. boiling water

Cream sugar, shortening, and eggs. Add vanilla and mix well. In a small bowl mix flour, cocoa and baking soda. Add 1 T. vinegar to the milk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture. While mixing, pour in the milk and water.
Pour batter into a greased and floured 9x13 pan. Bake @ 350˚ for 30 minutes. (Check for moist crumbs on toothpick.)

Frosting:
4 c. powdered sugar
2 T. margarine; softened
dash salt
4 T. cocoa
4 T. hot water (add more if needed)

Mix with electric mixer.

Molten Chocolate Surprise

4 squares BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
1 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup flour
12 CHIPS AHOY! Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/2 cup thawed Cool Whip Whipped Topping

Preheat oven to 425°F. Microwave chocolate and butter in large microwaveable bowl on High 2 min. or until butter is melted. Stir with wire whisk until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is well blended. Beat whole eggs, egg yolks, sugar and flour with wire whisk until well blended. Gradually add to chocolate mixture, beating constantly until well blended.

Line 12 medium muffin cups with paper liners. Place 1 cookie, upside-down, on bottom of each cup; cover evenly with batter.

Bake 8 min. or until cakes are firm around edges but still soft in centers. Let stand 1 min. Carefully remove cakes from muffin pan. Invert onto dessert dishes; remove paper liners. Serve with whipped topping.

Makes 12 cakes.

- Kraft Food & Family magazine

Grandma Mitchell's Apple Pudding Cake

Grate 6 large red apples
Mix with:
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup shortening

Sift together:
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. nutmeg
2 tsp. cinnamon

Sift dry ingredients into first mixture.
Add 1 cup chopped nuts (optional).
Bake in greased 13x9x2 inch pan.
350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

Homemade Rolls

2 pkgs of yeast
1/2 cup warm water (bath water temp.)
1 Tbls sugar
1 cup milk
1/4 cup margarine
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs, beaten
3 1/2-4 cups flour

Dissolve yeast in water for 5 minutes with 1 tablespoon of sugar.
Scald milk with margarine to melt; cool.
Put in mixer or large bowl.
Add sugar, eggs, salt.
Add yeast and flour. Dough will be a little sticky.
Cover, let rise 1 hour.
Roll out.
Cut with glass, pat with melted butter; fold in half and place on greased cookie sheet.
Rise until double, about 1- 1 1/2 hours.
Bake at 350 degrees for 12-20 minutes.

Makes 2-3 dozen
Can also make dough a day ahead and refrigerate.
Let rise for 2 hours before rolling out.

***You can knead the dough a little but the less you "work" the dough the lighter and fluffier your rolls will be.

Grandma Jennings Swiss Steak

Place into electric skillet:

Round steak or cube steak (approximatly 2-4 lbs)
Onion- sliced into rings
Add 1/2 cup water

Simmer 1 to 1 1/2 hours

Add:
1 qt. whole tomatoes
1/2 tsp. sweet basil
1/4 tsp. oregano
1 bay leaf
sprinkle of garlic salt

Cook 1/2 hour longer

Sweet and Sour Chicken

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed

Marinade:
1 egg
1 T. cornstarch
2 t. soy sauce
dash pepper

Mix ingredients together, stir in chicken and refrigerate 1 hour or longer.

Batter:
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. water
1/4 c. cornstarch
1 T. oil
1/2 t. baking soda

Mix ingredients together.

Pour oil into wok and preheat on medium heat. Line a cookie sheet with paper towels and place in 200 degree oven. Put 8-10 pieces of chicken into batter; coat well. Drop chicken into hot oil one at a time. Cook on one side until golden brown, then turn and cook til golden brown. Remove and place on cookie sheet to keep warm until ready to serve.

Sauce:
1 1/4 c. sugar
1 c. chicken broth
3/4 c. white vinegar
1 T. oil
2 t. soy sauce
dash of salt
garlic

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan over medium high heat. Bring to a boil. Mix cornstarch and water; slowly stir into sauce. Stir until thickened.

1/4 c. cornstarch
1/4 c. cold water

Serve chicken with rice and pour sauce over individual servings.