Cranberry Apple Butter

Cranberry Apple 'Butter'

Recipe By: The Flying Biscuit Cafe, Atlanta, GA

*I have found this recipe to work quite well in the crock pot. Add the first round of ingredients, turn it on high, and begin with the apples. I use my food processor or food chopper to speed up the cooking process. The smaller the apple pieces, the faster it cooks. Stir occasionally. If you have an immersion blender (or stick blender) I use that when it has all cooked to even out the texture. A regular blender would probably work, too.

• 2 cups dark brown sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick
  
• 1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 2 cups cranberries
• 10 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
  

Place sugar, spices, and orange juice in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan.
Bring to a simmer and add the cranberries.
Cook over medium heat until cranberries begin to pop.

Add the apples and cook over low heat, stirring frequently.
Cook until apples are tender and falling apart.
Puree the contents of saucepan in a food processor or mash with a potato masher until smooth and thick.

Cool and serve with hot biscuits.

Will keep 2 to 3 weeks in refrigerator. If you can it, it will fill about 10 of the smaller jars. Put the hot apple butter in the jars, seal the lid, and put them in a hot water bath (boiling water in a big pot) for a few minutes. Take them out and sit them somewhere to cool. As they cool, the lids should seal (not make that popping sound). If they don't, it wasn't hot enough. Reheat in the hot water bath.

5 minute coffee cup chocolate cake.

4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips(optional, I like using the mini chips for this one)
a small splash of vanilla
1 coffee mug (large)

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well
Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.
Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla essence, and mix again.
Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts.
The cake will rise over the top of the mug, depending on the size of the mug you use. Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.
EAT! (this is even more heavenly with icing or ice cream).


Why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world? We are all only 5 minutes away from choclate cake anytime of the day or night.

Mexican Tomato-Lime Soup

This is my very favorite, and it takes about 15 minutes to put together and another 5-10 to heat thoroughly. It's soooooooo good! And it's loaded in Vitamin C, so it's a great soup if you feel a cold coming on.

Mexican Tomato Lime Soup

1 large can tomato juice (64 oz)
1 large can diced tomatoes (28 oz)
2 limes
3-4 cloves garlic – minced
2 tsp. cumin
Fresh cilantro
Olive oil

Heat a tablespoon or so of olive oil in a pot. Add minced garlic and heat, but don’t brown. Add cumin. Pour in tomato juice and diced tomatoes (with the juice). Add juice of 2 limes. Heat through then add chopped fresh cilantro to taste.

Serve over crushed tortilla chips and top with grated cheese.

Corn Dumplings for Chili

So, these are meant for the slow cooker. I guess you could do it over the stove?
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup yellow corn meal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon minced fresh chives (I left these out)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup corn kernels
2 tablespoons olive oil

To make dumplings, combine the four, cornmeal, baking powder, chives and salt in a medium-size bowl. Stir in the corn, milk and oil until just combined. Do not overmix.
Turn the slow cooker to high and drop the batter by the spoonful onto the hot chili. Cover and cook on high until the dumplings are cooked through, 30-40 minutes

Butter Crisp Cookies

I haven't tried them yet, but these looked so yummy, I just had to share!

Ingredients:
One box Pillsbury "pudding in the mix" yellow cake mix
1 egg, slightly beaten
3/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup Rice Krispies

Instructions:
Blend all ingredients together. Dough will be crumbly. Form into tight 1-inch balls, place on cookie sheet and flatten slightly. Bake in 350 oven for 10-12 minutes. Give them away to neighbors so you don't gain 12 pounds.

Chicken enchaladas

Sandra Lee and her show semi-homemade are my favorite things!
I took this recipe from her...

3 chicken breasts cooked and shredded
2 cans enchalada sauce, seperated
1 can of mexican corn, drained
3 cups of shredded cheddar cheese, seperated
1 envelope of enchalada seasoning
Optional:
sour cream
diced black olives
diced tomatoes
1. Mix chicken and seasoning according to the package directions
2. add the corn, 2 cups of cheese, and 1 can of sauce to the chicken mixure.
3. spoon the mixture into 8 flour tortillas, and roll them up.
4. place in a 9x13 baking dish
5. pour the second can of sauce over the tortillas and top with the remaining cheese.
6. bake for 30 minutes at 350
7. top with the optional ingrediants if you desire.

I serve these with mexican rice and refried beans.

Banana Bread

Lately, this has been a huge hit in our house! The boys and Travis are eating it up and constantly asking for more.


1 stick of butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
3-4 ripe bananas, smashed
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt



1. cream the milk and sugar, add eggs, vanilla and bananas
2. combine all remaining ingrediants and beat them in
3. bake at 375 for 1 hr in a large loaf pan (I love using the pampered chef pan for this bread)
To make this more of a desert bread, I frost it using cream cheese frosting.

All day chicken and rice

1 whole chicken cut into parts
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup warm milk
1 cup un-cooked rice
1 envelope of onion soup mix


sprinkle rice in the bottom of a 9X13 greased pan
lay chicken parts on top
mix milk and soup, pour over chicken and rice
sprinkle with soup mix, cover with foil, bake for 2 hrs 15 min. at 325

What a perfect fall dish! I serve this with green beans.
(makes great leftovers!)

Barbecue Biscuits/Muffins/Cupcakes

I thought these were really cute, and they look yummy, too! I might make them for a party one day.

http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/shannon/2008/09/barbecue-cupcak.html

Chocolate Pumpkin Muffins

1 box Devil's Food cake mix
1 can pumkin

Combine the cake mix and pumpkin and spoon into greased muffin cups.
Bake at 400 for 20 minutes
Optional: frost with cream cheese frosting.

These are amazingly good! Not overly rich.
yeilds: 18ish muffins (depending on how many helpers are licking batter while you spoon the muffins)

Nope, we haven't all starved to death!

I've been cooking, but really really lazy about posting it. This past week, I got out magazines, cookbooks, and combed the internet. I found some great recipes!!!!! We have had 2 new dishes in the last 3 days, and I have 2 new one planned for next week.

This week, we had:
Mexican Chicken Pasta

16 oz of penne cooked and drained
1 large chicken breast cooked and diced
1 cup frozen corn1 can black beans drained and rinsed
1 1/2 cups queso
1/3 cup of milk
1 cup mexican cheese
1 large tomato diced
Combine queso, milk, corn and beans
pour over pasta and chicken
toss with cheese
place in oven (350) for 20 minutes or until heated.
top with tomato and serve
Yeilds : 6 servings
I'm served it with tortilla chips and salsa.

*I had rave reviews, but upon eating it as left overs travis said it was missing something, but wasn't sure what the something was.


Tonight I'm doing pork chops (one of my favorites)
I get an email daily from allrecipes.com
This past week I got a recipe for marinated baked pork chops. We are having those tonight with green beans, mashed potatoes, and apple sauce.

1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons ketchup
6 pork chops, trimmed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
In a small bowl, thoroughly blend soy sauce, vegetable oil, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, brown sugar, and ketchup.
Place pork chops in a medium baking dish, and spread with 1/2 the sauce.
Bake pork chops 30 minutes in the preheated oven. Turn, and spread with remaining sauce. Continue baking 30 minutes

Chicken Dumpling Soup

I made this for the church on Sunday night; it was really good. It's not as thick as most Chicken & Dumplings, which is what I really dislike about that dish. Try this one.

2 to 3 Tbsp. cooking oil
1 large onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
1/2 stalk celery, diced
Meat from 1 chicken, cooked and shredded
4 to 6 cups chicken broth
1 cup green beans
2 teaspoons celery seed
2 teaspoons basil
1 Tbsp. parsley
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper to taste

Dumplings:
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup flour
3 eggs

Soup:
In a small amount of cooking oil, sweat the onion, carrots and celery. Add chicken, broth, green beans, celery seed, parsley and bay leaves. Simmer about 30 minutes.

Make dumplings:
Bring the milk and butter to a boil, add salt, pepper and nutmeg. Remove from heat and immediately add flour, stirring until the dough leaves the sides of the pan. The batter should be slightly thinner than play-do at this point. Incorporate the eggs, one at a time, forming a sticky dough.

Season the soup to taste with salt and pepper. Add spoon sized (I used small kitchen spoons) balls of dumpling dough and simmer until dumplings float. This just takes a few minutes.

All in all, you can cook this soup, start to finish, in about an hour. It's really, really good!

Everything But ... Soup

Yesterday was one of those days that I was freezing cold and looking to spend some time with friends. So at lunchtime I threw together a soup, and it was WONDERFUL! The best thing about it? There's not really a recipe and virtually no salt at all. Here's how to do it:

1. Open the freezer.
2. Pull out random vegetables, paying particular attention to those that rarely get eaten. I used spinach, lima beans, peas, corn, onion, zucchini, squash, green beans.
3. Open two cans of diced tomatoes and dump them (juice included) into a crock-pot.
4. Add a pinch of basil, parsley, and salt. Add about a teaspoon of black pepper and two bay leaves.
5. Put 1-2 frozen chicken breasts (still frozen) on to boil on the stovetop with bay leaves and parsley. While they cook, dump the frozen vegetables in the crock-pot.
6. Cut any "dangerously close to the trash" vegetables from the fridge and put in crock-pot. I used mushrooms, carrots, potatoes.
7. When the chicken finishes, shred it and throw it in the crock-pot.
8. Leave the crock-pot on high until everything is cooked and smelling great. I let it cook about 3 hours or so. If you use potatoes, you might want to add them in the last 45 minutes or so to prevent them from getting too mushy.

mmmmm....

I love this soup with grilled cheese or cheese and crackers. It's hearty, filling, and very good for you. It's also a great way to smuggle veggies to those that don't like them as much -- like the spinach, which cooks down so much you don't even notice it. For a little extra "girth" to this soup, add cheese tortellini, rice, quinoa, or barley.

ENJOY!