Old fashioned oreo cookies

Ingredients:

2 (18 ounce) boxes of devil’s food cake mix

4 eggs, beaten well

2/3 cup oil

½ cup butter

4 ounces cream cheese

2 cups powdered sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla

Cookies:

Mix cake, eggs and oil together

Shape into balls

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. They are done then the tops look cracked.

Filling:

Mix butter, cream cheese, sugar and vanilla together.

When cookies are completely cooled, frost the flat side and put the cookies together.

Snow White Chili

Probably should've published this one last year after it won 1st place at our ward's Halloween party and chili cookoff. Or maybe this year before Halloween. Oh well, it's still good whenever :)

1 lb breakfast sausage
1 lb spicy breakfast sausage
12-16oz. cream cheese
2 large tomatoes, chopped
2 cans white beans (undrained)
1 - 7oz. can chopped green chilis
Chips for dipping

Brown sausage in skillet, drain. Place cream cheese on bottom of slow cooker, add other ingredients, cook on high 30-45 minutes stirring regularly. Serve with cornbread, fritos or tortilla chips. (I like to take a bite out of a red delicious apple and leave it next to the crock pot for effect.)

Italian Chicken

This is AMAZING and easy.

(Can be halved easily for smaller families, but the leftovers are delicious for days and days!)

5 - 6 chicken breasts - (I cut them in half so they cook through faster and so it's easier to dish out correct portions to my little ones)

4 - 5 roma tomatoes chopped up

2 cloves of garlic minced

Jar of artichoke hearts drained (no need to buy marinated ones - I just got the metal can of quartered hearts in the vegetable aisle)  

1 C mozzarella cheese grated

salt and pepper

2 T olive oil

2 T flour

fresh basil if desired - chopped up

Cut up chicken, arrange in bottom of 9 x 13 pan and season with salt and pepper.

Chop up tomatoes and artichoke hearts.  Mix with minced garlic, olive oil, flour and some salt and pepper.

Arrange tomato / artichoke mixture around the chicken in the pan.  (Looks so pretty!) 

Bake at 350 until chicken is done (start checking after about 1/2 hour).

Place basil and melt mozzarella on top before removing from oven.

Serve over pasta (like angel hair or whatever!) Be sure to scoop up some of the delicious sauce from the bottom of the pan.

Black Sorcery Fondue

Our Valentine's day tradition is to have a fondue dinner with our kids.  I don't feel the need to go out ON valentine's day and wait hours to eat at a restaurant that I can go to a few days later and get right in.  So, it's a stay-at-home, celebrate-with-the-family type of day for us. 

This year, I'm foregoing the entire fondue dinner because I may or may not be having a baby, but we're going to stick with dessert.  So, here is my favorite recipe - Black Sorcery Fondue!

2 T light corn syrup

1/2 C half-and-half

8 - 9 oz of semi-sweet good chocolate - like Ghiradelli

1 t vanilla

Put everything together in a double boiler and heat slowly, stirring frequently until melted and blended.

You can transfer the mixture to a true fondue pot to keep warm, but we eat it so fast, we just keep it in the double boiler.

Our favorite things to dip:

vanilla wafers

strawberries

bananas

marshmallows

pretzles

pound or angel food cake squares

     

Stuffed Peppers

I needed to clean out my fridge today, so I decided to create my own version of stuffed peppers with what I had on hand. I think it worked out great! Here's what I used:

2 Green Peppers
1lb Ground Beef
1 Small Zucchini
1 Small Yellow Squash
1 Portabella Mushroom
A Chunk of Tofu
About 1 Serving of White Rice
1/4 Jar of Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce
Olive Oil

Brown and drain the ground beef, add chopped/diced zucchini, squash, and mushroom (I chopped them pretty small), and stir in pasta sauce. Cover and let the veggies cook for a few minutes before adding tofu (again, cut small), and rice.

Cut off tops of peppers and clean out seeds. Stuff with filling and place in a glass pan drizzled with olive oil. Bake at 350•F until green peppers have softened.

I ended up with enough filling to stuff 2-3 more peppers, but I think it's yummy by itself too.

Simply Salmon (or other fish)

Ingredients:
Salmon Fillet(s)
Olive oil
Lemon pepper
Crushed black pepper
Lemon slices

Prep:
Baste the fillet in a small amount of olive oil being sure to coat the entire surface (not the skin side if you leave skin on).
Sprinkle Lemon pepper on to your taste. Add black pepper if it needs more kick. Add lemon slices if you see fit.
Wrap in foil being sure to seal the edges completely.
If you do two fillets try to match them in size and lay them on one another so that the skin side is out.

Grill Salmon until done (yeah... I don't time things) and will flake easily with a fork. You may also cook this atop coals.

Devour!

*Optional additions

Wash and trim asparagus to lay atop the lemon slices and/or in between the fillets.
Pepper slices are also a good addition.

Black Bottom Banana Cream Pie

This one's an award winner!  Sure to win any ward's pie making contest!

1 refrigerated pie crust

1 container (12 oz) frozen whipped topping, thawed

1 package (6 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 1/2 C cold milk

1 package (5.1 oz) vanilla or white chocolate or banana cream instant pudding

2 medium bananas

Strawberries for garnish, if desired.

1.  Heat oven  to 425 degrees.  Bake pie crust 10 - 12 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool completely.

2.  Place 1 1/2 C of the whipped topping and chocolate chips in a microwave safe container and microwave, uncovered, for 30 seconds.  Stir.  If there are still bits of unmelted chocolate, zap it again for another 20 - 30 seconds.  Stir until smooth.  Put 2 Tablespoons of the chocolate mixture into a small, ziplock bag and set aside.  (I usually stand it up in a small cup so that it doesn't spread all over inside the bag.)  Spread remaining chocolate mixture over the bottom and sides of the pie crust.

3.  Slice the bananas and place slices on top of the chocolate.

4.  Whisk the pudding and the milk for 1 minute or until mixture begins to thicken.  Fold in 1 1/2 C of the whipped topping.  (There should be just a bit of topping left to use as garnish).  Refrigerate at least 30 minutes.

5.  When ready to serve, garnish the pie by snipping a small tip off the corner of the ziplock and squeezing the chocolate mixture over pie in a decorative design.  Pipe rosettes of whipped topping around the edge of the pie (I usually do 10 - 12).  Place sliced strawberries, pointing up, just in front of, or in the whipped topping rosettes and you can place a slice of banana too (but those can turn brown rather quickly, so unless you're serving it right away, I'd hold off on the banana slices.)