Creamy Rice Pudding

After my Wednesday night meal was over, there were a few leftovers. I decided to look for a rice pudding recipe to make with the leftover cooked rice I brought home. Here's one that I found and tried, Creamy Rice Pudding. I made it and thought it was great! I left out the raisins, not because I don't like raisins, but I just didn't feel like having them in my rice pudding that day. Thanks for stopping by!

Texas Coconut Pecan Cake

One of the ladies at church made this cake for a Wednesday night meal a few weeks ago. Many of us asked her for the recipe, and she was kind enough to bring it to the church office to copy it for many of us. I decided to make it for my Wednesday night meal. I don't think she'll mind if I share it. Thanks, Carole, for the recipe!

Texas Coconut Pecan Cake

1 yellow cake mix
1 can coconut pecan frosting

Mix cake mix batter as directed on box. Mix frosting in with batter, beat well with mixer. Bake in a prepared bundt pan at 350F for 45 minutes or until done. Allow to cool for about 10 min. before removing from pan.

Sauce:

Cook 4 T. brown sugar, 1/4 c. butter, and 1/4 c. heavy cream in a small saucepan over medium heat until thick and bubbly. Drizzle over hot cake.

Thanks for stopping by!

Texas Sheet Cake

This recipe is from my mother-in-law. She makes this cake every year for the Toth family reunion, so I called her last week for the recipe. It's a very simple one. Thanks, Becky, for the recipe!

Texas Sheet Cake

Preheat oven to 375. Lightly grease a 12x17 baking sheet.

Bring to a boil in a small saucepan:

1 c. butter
1 c. water
4 T. cocoa

Allow to cool for a few minutes while preparing the following mixture of dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl:

2 c. flour
2 c. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 t. soda

Return to the melted butter and cocoa mixture and add:

2 eggs
1/2 c. sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix well before adding this to the dry ingredients. Mix the wet and dry ingredients together just until combined well.

Pour batter into the prepared baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.

While cake is baking, prepare frosting as follows.

Bring to a boil in a small saucepan:

1/2 c. butter
6 T. milk
4 T. cocoa

Allow to cool for a few minutes while preparing the following in a large mixing bowl:

4 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Pour butter, milk and cocoa mixture into sugar and mix well. Pour over warm cake after allowing to cool for about 5 minutes. Allow entire cake to cool before serving.

Thanks for stopping by!

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake and Carrot Cake

Once again, I am going to reference my old favorite cookbook, the Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook in the big red and white plaid binder. That's where I got the recipes for both my Pineapple Upside-Down Cake and Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.

As usual, I didn't follow the recipe exactly. Again, I simplified the pineapple upside-down cake recipe by using a boxed yellow cake mix instead of making the cake from scratch. Hey, I was cooking for 100 people! I had to take a few shortcuts! Thanks for stopping by!

Coconut Cake

I think the next most popular cake last Wednesday night was the Coconut Cake. This is a recipe from Paula Deen, Jamie's Coconut Cake.

I did not follow this recipe exactly. In fact, I didn't use the cake recipe at all. Instead, I used a boxed white cake mix and made two round layers. I then made the filling from the recipe and applied it to my two layers as she describes.

Finally, I made the 7 Minute Frosting. This is the first time I've ever made this frosting, and I don't think I whipped it quite long enough. It was a little softer than I would have liked, so I will keep that in mind the next time I make it. No matter though, everyone that had the coconut cake thought it was great.

Stop by tomorrow for another cake recipe. Thanks for stopping by!

Peanut Butter Cake Icing

For dessert last Wednesday night, I made a variety of cakes:

• Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
• Coconut Cake
• Texas Coconut Pecan Cake
• Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Icing
• Texas Sheet Cake
• Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

The first one to be eaten was the chocolate cake with peanut butter icing. Have you ever made peanut butter icing? It's easy. There's a recipe in the red and white plaid Better Homes & Gardens cookbook, which I reference frequently, for buttercream icing. It has a few variations listed under it, and one of them is peanut butter. You simply substitute peanut butter for the butter or shortening in the recipe. Try it with your favorite buttercream icing recipe. It's very rich, but very very good. Be sure you have a tall glass of milk ready!

Tomorrow I'll share another cake recipe. Thanks for stopping by!

Hard Rock Cafe Cole Slaw

In addition to Chicken and Shrimp Gumbo, I also made rice, cole slaw and cornbread. (See yesterday's post for background story.) The rice was just some regular rice that I got at Wal*Mart. Did you know a 10 lb. bag has 100 servings in it? 100 people is our normal turnout on Wednesday nights, so that's what I prepared for.

For cornbread, I used twelve boxes of Jiffy cornbread mix. Again, that was pretty easy. I made up all the boxes and spread the batter on a full sheet pan. After it baked, I let it cool and then cut it into 96 pieces.


Finally, the cole slaw recipe is one that I have just found in the past few months. I had never found a good creamy cole slaw recipe that we liked. My mom gave me a cookbook last fall with restaurant recipes in it. I tried the Hard Rock Cafe Cole Slaw recipe, and we really liked it. Once again, for copyright purposes, I won't print the recipe here, but you're welcome to borrow my cookbook!

Tomorrow I'll tell you about my desserts. Thanks for stopping by!

Chicken and Shrimp Gumbo

Sorry I've been absent from posting lately! Things got a little hectic around here! It was my week to prepare the meal for the WCC Wednesday Family Night, which is our church's Bible study night. Women in the church take turns signing up to take care of the meal each week in the spring and fall when we have our studies.

Our traditional Christmas Eve meal is Chicken and Shrimp Gumbo. When we started staying here at our home for Christmas, we started doing some things to begin our own family traditions. Having Gumbo for Christmas Eve is one of them. Jim tells me that I need to make it more than once a year, and he asked that I make it for the Wednesday Family Night meal. So, I did.


The recipe I use comes from the Bubba Gump Shrimp Cookbook. (Yes, Bubba Gump from the movie, Forrest Gump.) For copyright purposes, I won't print the recipe below, but you're welcome to borrow my cookbook if you'd like! The recipe makes 4 1/2 quarts, which is served over hot cooked rice. I made 6 batches--3 with shrimp and 3 without. We got a fantastic deal on precooked frozen shrimp at Meijer, 2.5 lbs. for $9.99!

Come back Monday and I'll share some more of my menu. Thanks for stopping by!

Indy Shamrock Run & Walk

Today was the Indianapolis St. Patrick's Day Celebration Shamrock Run & Walk. It was a 4-mile event around the downtown area, and we passed some famous Irish establishments along the way. You can see more information, including everything you want to know about the St. Patrick's Day Parade on their website.


I am proud to say that I did pretty well! Here are my stats:

• time: 33:19.2, a 8:19 min./mile pace
• 6th in my age group for women 30-34
• 274th out of 1297 total participants

Tomorrow my sister, Jill, is running her first 5K, the Shamrock 5K, in Baltimore, MD. I'm so proud of her and all she's accomplished the past few months. Good luck, Jill!Thanks for stopping by!

Cumin-Curry Pork Chops

A few weeks ago, we picked this recipe up at Meijer. It's supposed to be for a 3 1/2 lb. boneless half pork loin roast, but I used it for pork chops. I buy boneless half pork loin roasts when they are on sale and have the meat counter slice it into 3/4" thick boneless pork chops for me. Then I bag them into family-sized quantities and freeze them.

So here's my adjusted recipe for Cumin-Curry Pork Chops that was inspired by a free coupon from Meijer:

Cumin-Curry Pork Chops

4 pork chops
2 T. brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. curry powder
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 medium onion, sliced into rings

Preheat oven to 375F.

In small bowl, combine brown sugar, curry powder, cumin, salt and pepper. Rub mixture onto pork chops.

Place pork chops into a baking dish. Place onion slices on top of pork chops. Bake 30-45 minutes, or until a meat thermometer reads 160F. Cover and let stand 5 minutes before serving.

I hope you enjoy these! We thought they were great, and I am really accumulating quite a few good pork chop recipes. Thanks for stopping by!

Moroccan Beef with Honey Couscous

Last Saturday, I attended a beekeeping seminar. One of the classes I attended during the day was a "Honey in the Kitchen" class. The lady who taught the class, Karen Lackey, was a great teacher, and she gave us some recipes that use honey. This is a dish that she made, but I didn't have a chance to taste it. I made it for us last night, and I really enjoyed it! I'm anxious to eat the leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by!

Moroccan Beef

1 1/2 pounds of beef flank steak (or flat iron steak, or whatever you have)

Marinade:

2 T. red wine vinegar
2 tsp. garlic salt
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. coriander
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 c. honey
1/2 c. olive oil

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Reserve 1/3 cup for preparing couscous. Place steak and marinade in a zip lock bag and marinate in refrigerator for at least one hour or overnight. Remove steak from marinade and cook for 8-10 min. or until browned in a large skillet. Turn steak, cover and reduce heat to low. Continue cooking for 7-10 min. Slice diagonally into thin slices before serving.

Couscous

2 c. water
1/3 c. reserved steak marinade
1-15 oz. can garbanzo beans, drained
1-15 oz. can diced tomatoes
1/3 c. chopped fresh parsley
1 box (10-12 oz.) couscous

In large pan, combine all but couscous and bring to a boil. Stir in couscous. Cover and remove from heat. Let stand 5 min. and fluff with a fork. Serve.

Mexican Chicken Soup

I have had this recipe for years now, and I can't remember where I got it originally. I kept thinking it was a Pampered Chef recipe, but I don't think it is. At any rate, I have made a few changes to it along the way, so I'm just going to give it to you without the original source. It's something different to have for dinner when you're tired of all your regular recipes!

Mexican Chicken Soup

2 c. cooked, cubed chicken
3-14.5 oz. cans of chicken broth
2 cloves of garlic, pressed or diced
16 oz. salsa
1/2 c. rice
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. salt
1-15 oz. can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 c. frozen corn
1-4 oz. can diced green chiles

Let me first say that sometimes I don't precook my chicken. Sometimes I cut up the boneless skinless chicken breast into bite-sized pieces and cook them in the bottom of my soup pot in a little cooking oil. Once the chicken is cooked, I put it in a bowl and set it aside until the recipe calls for it to be added.

Combine chicken broth and garlic in a large soup pot and bring to a boil.

Add salsa, rice, oregano and salt. Cover. Reduce heat to low and cookfor 15 min., stirring occasionally.

Add cooked chicken, black beans, corn and chiles. Continue cooking for 5 min. or until heated through.

Serve in soup bowls with tortilla chips on the side. Top each with a dollop of plain sour cream, or Cilantro-Lime Sour Cream. See recipe below.

Cilantro-Lime Sour Cream

Combine and serve with Mexican Chicken Soup.

1/2 c. sour cream
3 T. chopped fresh cilantro (or more to taste)
1 T. lime juice

I hope you enjoy this great Tex-Mex soup! Thanks for stopping by!

Peanut Butter Blossoms

A friend of our family has been serving in Iraq for the past year. He and his family attend our church, and he arrived home safe and sound last week. He likes my sugar cookies, and his wife likes my peanut butter cookies. I don't know what the kids like, but kids like most any cookies, right?


This peanut butter cookie recipe was originally given to me by my mother-in-law. She makes them with the Hershey's Kisses on top, but I usually make them just as peanut butter cookies without the Kisses.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

1/2 c. shortening
1/2 c. creamy peanut butter
1/2 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 egg
2 T. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 3/4 c. flour
Hershey's Kisses (optional)

Preheat oven to 350F.

Cream shortening, peanut butter and sugars. Add egg, milk and vanilla and mix just till combined. Add dry ingredients and mix until well combined.

Shape into walnut-sized balls and roll in granulated sugar. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for approximately 14 min. Remove cookies from oven and place an unwrapped Hershey's Kiss on top until cookie cracks around edges. Return to oven for approximately 2 min. longer.

If not using Hershey's Kisses, bake approximately 15 min. until cookies are lightly browned on the edges. Remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before removing from cookie sheet.

Thank you, all military personnel, for doing what you do. Thank you, all their families, who have also sacrificed a great deal. Your sacrifice allows us all to enjoy the life of freedom we have here in this country. Because of you, I don't have to worry for the continual safety of my family on a daily basis. Thank you.

Thanks for stopping by!