Stromboli, Calzone, whatever you call them!

I hadn't made homemade stromboli for my family in ages, so I made them Tuesday evening for dinner. I use my bread machine to make pizza dough, and then I just roll it out, fill it with our favorite items, seal them up and bake them at 350F until their golden brown. Serve them with a side of pizza sauce for dipping! Yum!

We normally put deli ham, pepperoni and mozzarella cheese in ours. I've also put grilled onions and/or green peppers, mushrooms, and browned hamburg or sausage in them. I usually make 2 or 3 out of a batch of dough, so I can make a few different varieties for everyone's tastes. I've never done it, but you could probably buy a can of pizza dough and do the same thing. Thanks for stopping by!

Spiced Pork Chops with Apple Chutney

I made Spiced Pork Chops with Apple Chutney Monday night for dinner. I got a new grill pan for my birthday back in February, and it was perfect for making these. Jim commented that they were very good done on the stove instead of baking them in the oven, which is what I usually do. I really enjoyed the apple chutney on them too. As shown in the picture, I even made green beans to go with them. It was yummy! Thanks for stopping by!

Broccoli and Chicken Noodle Soup

Hi, Everyone! Sorry I've been delinquent for so long. I lost a month of my life due to a sickie bug I just couldn't shake. It started in mid-March, and I am just now getting back into the swing of things. Needless to say, I wasn't in the mood to try new recipes while I was sick. I stuck to my old favorite comfort food recipes!

Late last week while making up this week's menu, I decided to dig out my Cooking Light magazines from the past two months. I hadn't had much of a chance to peruse them, so I grabbed them and picked a few recipes to try in the coming weeks.


Over the weekend, I made Broccoli and Chicken Noodle Soup. I have accumulated quite a collection of soup recipes, and I think I shall add this one to it. We enjoyed it. Thanks for stopping by!

Easter

May you have a blessed Easter.

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!