Sunday, July 25, 2010

Cookie Carnival: Oatmeal Raisin Cookies


One of the recipes for this July's Cookie Carnival is Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. The recipe is from Pillsbury. I made these this afternoon. I added some chocolate chips to part of the batter. the cookies were so delicious! Hard to stay out of them!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar
1/4 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup margarine or butter, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups quick cooking rolled oats
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Spray cookie sheets with nonstick cooking spray. In large bowl, combine sugar, brown sugar and margarine; beat until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs; blend well. Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Stir in oats, raisins and nuts.

2. Drop dough by rounded teaspoons 2 inches apart onto cookie sheets.

3. Bake at 375 degrees for 7-10 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool 1 minute, remove from cookie sheets.


Wednesday, July 21, 2010

My Girl, Paula: Blueberry Cream Pie

This week's, My Girl, Paula theme is Anything Goes. After looking through The Lady & Sons, Too! cookbook, I found this recipe. Had to make it! It is for tomorrow night's dinner at my parents'. I've been meaning to make it for a couple weeks now. It was really easy. THIS PIE IS AWESOME!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
one 9-inch deep-dish pie crust (thawed if frozen)
Two 3-oz packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup granulated sugar
One 21-oz can blueberry pie filling

Directions:

Press the chopped nuts into the bottom of the pie crust. Bake as directed on the package and let cool.

Beat the cream cheese with the confectioners' sugar. Beat the heavy cream with the granulated sugar until it forms into soft peaks. Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.

Spoon the mixture into the cooled pie shell and top with blueberry pie filling.

Refrigerate until well chilled.




Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Fajitas

My daughter, Kelly, wanted to make this recipe by Tyler Florence while she was visiting. All of us chipped in...Kelly doing most, Jimmy making the guacamole, Steve helping with the grilling, and I did clean up and found stuff.

This was one of the best fajitas I have ever had! Thanks, Kelly!

Ingredients:

1 orange, juiced
2 limes, juiced
4 T, olive oil
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
3 chipolte chiles, in adobo sauce
3 T roughly chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
2 1/4 lb shirt or flank steak, trimmed of fat, cut into thirds or 8 inch pieces
salt and pepper
2 red bell peppers, thinly sliced
1 large onion, thinly sliced
Lime juice, olive oil, optional
12 flour tortillas, warm
guacamole, recipe follows
good quality store bought salsa

Directions:

In a small 2 cup measuring cup, or something similar size and shape, combine all the marinade ingredients. Using an immersion blender, puree the marinade until smooth. Transfer to a re-sealable plastic bag and add the steak, seal and shake to coat. Refrigerate the beef for 2-4 hours to tenderize and flavor the beef.

Preheat a ridged grill pan on high heat. Drain the marinade from the beef. Lightly oil the grill or grill pan. Season liberally with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Grill the steak over medium-high heat and cook for 4 minutes on each side and then transfer to a cutting board and let rest. Depending on the size of your grill pan, you may need to cook in batches.

Once the beef is off the grill pan and resting, add the bell peppers and onions tossed with lime juice and olive oil, if using. Grill the mixture for 7-8 minutes until the vegetables are just barely limp.

While the peppers and onions are cooking, heat up the tortillas. Turn any free burners on a medium low flame; place a tortilla on each flame and let it char about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Flip the tortilla and repeat on the second side. Once heated and charred, remove the tortilla to a clean tea towel and wrap to keep warm. Repeat until you have warmed all the tortillas. Or, you can heat the tortillas in the microwave.

Thinly slice the steak against the grain on the diagonal.

To serve: Spread guacamole on a tortilla, top with a few slices of steak, peppers and onions, and salsa. Roll up tortilla to enclose the filling.

May also be served with sour cream and shredded cheese.

Guacamole:

5 ripe Hass avocados
3-4 limes, juiced
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 small garlic clove, minced
1 serrano chile, chipped
1 big handful fresh cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
Drizzle olive oil

Halve and pit the avocados. With a tablespoon, scoop out the flesh into a mixing bowl. mash the avocados with a fork, leaving them still a bit chunky. Add all the rest of the ingredients, and fold everything together. Lay a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the guacamole so it does not brown and refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.




Sunday, July 4, 2010

Fourth of July Cupcakes




Happy Fourth of July! I hope everyone had as nice a day as I did. It was great having my daughter and her family here to visit for the holiday. They aren't leaving for a week. Looking forward to the upcoming week off to visit with them. We had a barbecue and went and watched the city's fireworks.

I decided to make the the Fourth of July Cupcakes from A Recipe a Day by Nancy. I thought my two grandkids would get a kick out of them...I think the adults did too!

This recipe should make like 18 cupcakes but I had my grandkids helping so I made 13!
Ingredients:

White cake mix and the ingredients to make it
blue food coloring
red food coloring
white frosting
sprinkles

Directions:

Mix the cake mix and the ingredients to make it. Divide the batter evenly into three bowls. In one bowl add blue food coloring to desired shade. Repeat with the red food color. Leave one bowl as it.

Line 18 muffin tins with liners. Put about 2T of red batter on bottom; next 2 T of white on top of red; third 2T on top. Do not swirl.

Bake as directed on cake mix box. Let cupcakes cool. Frost with the white frosting and add red, white and blue sprinkles.



Saturday, July 3, 2010

My Girl, Paula: Mustard and Peppercorn Crusted Ribeye


This recipe is actually for next weeks theme: Grilling. This was such an easy recipe and so delicious! We ate until we were stuffed! My son-in-law grilled these for me while I did the inside stuff.

Ingredients:

4 large ribeye steaks (about 1 1/2 to 2 inches thick, at least 6 ounces each)
4 T brown mustard
4 T fresh ground black peppercorns
1-2 T finely ground black pepper (if desired) - I omitted
Kosher salt

Directions:

Brush ribeyes with mustard on both sides. In a shallow bowl, or a plate with deep center, combine the pepper and salt. Pat pepper mixture onto steaks and crust thoroughly on all sides.

Prepare your grill by lightly spraying your grate to prevent sticking. When the grill is hot, place the ribeyes on your grate and cook until desired doneness. About 3-4 minutes a side for rare. Add one or two minutes for medium rare and so on.


Weekend Brunch Casserole


My daughter is visiting with her family from Kansas. When I was at my cousin's a couple weekends ago, she made this casserole. It can be found on the Bob Evans website. But, don't tell Bob that I prefer Jimmy Dean better...Shhh...

My cousin made it with onions and peppers; I left them out. It was so yummy! We ate the whole thing!

Ingredients:

1 lb Bob Evans Original Recipe Sausage Roll (I used Jimmy Dean Regular)
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 (8 oz) can refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
4 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup milk
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Crumble and cook sausage in medium skillet over medium heat until browned. Drain.

Line bottom of greased 13 x 9 inch baking dish with crescent roll dough, firmly pressing perforations to seal. Sprinkle with sausage and cheese. Combine remaining ingredients in medium bowl until blended; pour over sausage.

Bake 15 minutes or until set. Let stand 5 minutes before cutting into squares. Refrigerate leftovers.