Corndog Casserole

Okay, I'll be the first to admit that the name of this dish may be a little bit unappetizing. However it really was decent and QUICK....which we all know is important at times. And the kids liked it!

Ingredients:
2 cups thinly sliced celery
1 1/2 cups sliced green onions
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 pounds hot dogs
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
2 teaspoons ground sage
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 (8.5 ounce) packages dry corn bread mix
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese, divided

Directions:

1. In a medium skillet, saute celery and green onions in butter for 5 minutes. Place saute mixture in a large bowl; set aside.
2. Slice hot dogs lengthwise into quarters, then cut into thirds. In same skillet, saute hot dogs for 5 minutes or until lightly browned. Add to celery/onion mixture and mix all together. Set aside 1 cup of mixture.
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
4. In a large bowl combine the eggs, milk, sage and pepper. Add all but reserved 1 cup hot dog mixture. Stir in corn bread mix and 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese. Mix all together and spread mixture into a shallow 3 quart baking dish. Top with reserved 1 cup hot dog mixture and remaining 1/2 cup shredded cheese.
5. Bake uncovered in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until golden brown.

Note: I didn't include the celery, it's not popular in our home.
Also, the recipe calls for A LOT of sage! Next time I will either cut the sage down a lot or not include it. The sage gave it a stuffing taste.
I also didn't do a whole pound and a half of hot dogs, I used 1 pound plus 3 leftover hot dogs I had thrown in the freezer. Stuart thinks it needed more hot dogs, but I thought it was fine the way it was.

Monkey Bread made with Amish Bread

Amish Bread (this is a sweet bread)

• 2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 6 cups bread flour

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in warm water, and then stir in yeast. Allow to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam.
2. Mix salt and oil into the yeast. Mix in flour one cup at a time. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Place in a well oiled bowl, and turn dough to coat. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
3. Punch dough down. Knead for a few minutes, and divide in half. Shape into loaves, and place into two well oiled 9x5 inch loaf pans. Allow to rise for 30 minutes, or until dough has risen 1 inch above pans.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes.

Once you have the Amish bread made then you gather these things and do this:

Brown Sugar: 1/2cup will be needed
* 2 sticks of butter (1 cup)
* Bundt Cake Pan (feel free to use dorky shapes)
* Cinnamon: 2-3 teaspoons
* 3 cans of Buttermilk Biscuits (the non-flaky ones)
* Sugar!: 1 cup

Now before you do anything…go ahead and preheat that oven to 350 degrees You’ll need this in about 10 minutes.

Open up all three cans of biscuits and cut each biscuit into quarters. (Or in our case cut up your bread dough into small pieces.)
At this time you’ll want to combine the 1 cup of regular sugar with 2-3 teaspoons of cinnamon. I use 3 teaspoons of cinnamon and this gives it a fairly strong cinnamon flavor. If you’re not so hot on cinnamon, cut it back to 2 teaspoons. Dump these into a 1 gallon zip bag and shake to mix evenly. Drop all of the biscuit quarters into the cinnamon-sugar mix. Go ahead…all of them. Yes, they’re sticking together right now, but just trust me.
Once all the biscuit quarters are in the bag, seal it and give it a vigorous shake. This will get all those pieces unstuck from one another and nicely coated with the cinnamon-sugar. You might have some excess sugar left over and that’s okay.
Spread these nuggets out evenly in your bundt pan. I suppose you might want to grease this pan before doing this, but I’m pretty sure the gallon of butter we are about to add will keep it safe.
At this point, you’re going to want to melt those two sticks of butter together with 1/2cup of brown sugar. This can be light or dark brown sugar. Stir together over a medium-high heat until the two become one.
Once the brown sugar butter has become one color, you can pour it over the biscuits.
At first…it’s going to look like too much. It’s okay though.

Bake this @ 350 degrees for about 30-40 minutes until the crust is a deep brown on top.

If you have the willpower, allow this to cool for about 15-30 minutes before turning it over onto a plate. If it doesn’t slide right down onto the plate, give it a few love-taps until it plops. It’ll hold.


If you'd like a tutorial (probably because it just looks SOOOO yummy) click here.

Carrot Applesauce Layer Cake

3 cups all-purpose flour (spoon-and-sweep)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp ground cloves
½ lb. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup store-bought unsweetened applesauce, at room temperature
2/3 cup golden raisins (optional)
2/3 cup walnuts (optional)
1 cup finely shredded carrots

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 350 deg. Line the bottoms of two 9x2-inch round cake pans with parchment or wax paper.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, baking powder, nutmeg, salt, and cloves onto a piece of wax paper; set aside. Combine applesauce and shredded carrots; set aside.

In the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer fitted with the paddle blade, beat the butter on medium speed until it is lighter in color, about 45 seconds. Add the sugar in a steady stream, then stop the machine and scrape down the bowl. Return to medium speed and beat, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl, until the mixture is very light in color and texture, about 3 minutes. One at a time, beat in the eggs, beating well after each addition, then add the vanilla.

Reduce the mixer speed to low. Add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with two additions of the applesauce mixture. After each addition, beat just until smooth and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Gently fold in the raisins and nuts. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pans.

Bake until the tops spring back when the cakes are lightly pressed in the centers and a toothpick inserted in the centers comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.

Transfer to wire cooling rack and cool for 10 minutes. Invert onto the racks or plates and remove the pans. Peel off the paper liners and place them back on the layers, sticky sides up. Invert onto wire racks, right side up, and cool completely on the wax paper.

Manna from Heaven Orange Bread

In a mixing bowl, combine:
3 cups white flour
1 cup wheat flour
5 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 ½ tsp salt
½ cup brown sugar

In a separate mixing bowl, combine:
3 eggs, well beaten
½ cup oil
1 cup milk
1 cup orange juice (approx. 3 oranges)
4-5 TB orange zest

Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and combine until flour is just moistened.

Add:
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Scrape batter into 3 medium (greased and floured) loaf pans. Bake at 375 degrees F for 35 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Immediately remove from pans and cool completely.

Note: This recipe came from Grandma Staples files. I'm not a big fan of orange and chocolate together, but this bread was very good. It is not especially sweet, but it has plenty of flavor. The wheat flour gives the bread a nutty quality.

Creamy Ham Broccoli Casserole

This is technically supposed to have Spam in it. However, since I am NOT a fan of Spam and don't keep it in my food storage we used some of the ham leftover from Easter Dinner. I got this from my America's Favorite Brand Name One-Dish Meals cookbook.

Creamy Ham Broccoli Casserole

Nonstick cooking spray
1 (7 oz) package elbow macaroni
2 cups frozen cut broccoli, thawed and drained
Ham
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
2 cups milk
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup (4 oz) shredded Cheddar cheese
3/4 cup soft bread crumbs
2 teaspoons margarine, melted

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 2-quart casserole with nonstick cooking spray. Cook macaroni according to package directions; drain. In prepared casserole, combine macaroni, broccoli, Ham and bell pepper. In small saucepan, stir together milk, cornstarch and black pepper until cornstarch is dissolved. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until thickened. Reduce heat to low. Add cheese; stir until melted. Stir sauce into Ham mixture. Combine bread crumbs and margarine; sprinkle on top of casserole. Bake 40 minutes or until thoroughly heated.
Makes 8 servings.

Note: I did not measure my noodles, but did double the sauce. It filled to the top of a 9x13 pan. Next time I probably wouldn't use the bread crumbs and margarine. However we did put some parmesan cheese on top which was great. Phillip had 4 servings of this and the other two ate more than Stuart and I ate. Even with all of what we ate we still have half of the 9x13 pan left...not normal in our family. It was GREAT!

Stuffed Pesto Chicken

I got this recipe from a friend at my bridal shower and haven't tried it until this last week. And let me say that it was amazing! Serves 2.

2 chicken breast
Pesto
Roasted red peppers
Salt and Pepper
Mozzarella cheese, shredded

• Preheat oven to 350.
  
• Butterfly the chicken.
• Place and spread desired amount of pesto inside.
• Place desired amount of roasted pepper.
• Stuff shredded mozzarella cheese inside.
• Close, then spread pesto on top of chicken.
• Sprinkle salt and pepper.
• Place on baking sheet.
• Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes.

I hope you enjoy it as much as Garrett and I did!

Black Forest Pie

Black Forest Pie

I got this from Taste of Home. It's really chocolaty and VERY rich, but it's good.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup Domino or C&H Granulated Pure Cane Sugar
1/3 cup baking cocoa
2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, cubed
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 can (21 ounces) cherry pie filling, divided
1 unbaked pastry shell (9 inches)
Whipped Topping (optional)

Directions:
In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, cocoa and flour. Stir in milk until smooth. Add butter. Cook and stir over medium-high heat until thickened and bubbly. Reduce heat; cook and stir 2 minutes longer.
Remove from the heat. Stir a small amount of hot filling into eggs; return all to pan, stirring constantly. Fold in half of the pie filling.
Pour into pastry shell. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until filling is almost set. Coll completely on a wire rack. Just before serving, top with remaining pie filling and whipped topping if desired. Yield: 6-8 servings.