My Dear Friend Mandy!

Mandy is a sweet friend who I really enjoy chatting with. 

She has a cool head, I guess she has to, she has 6 kids!!

Amazing!

This is one of her favorite cookbooks (mine too).

We got together with Whitney (her sil my friend) and made some meals from here and froze them.

Whoo hoo for frozen meals when life is hectic!

She has a cute web site for her recipes,

which is great because I like love her recipes!

They aren't hard and I know they are good.

 I Love, love, love her sausage and peppers, love her smoothies and there is even one for Adobo.

Her mother in law is a great cook and has taught her some great recipes from

Puerto Rico.

Go here to see what she has!

PS I know she loves comments. Leave her one or two and let her know how much you enjoy her recipes!

My SIL can bake!

Chrissy's Chocolate Carmel Brownies!!!

Ok are you ready for the tastiest, devilish, rich brownies you ever have?

Get ready!  I am going to share!

 

1. 
   
   1 -14 oz bag of caramels (unwrapped)
   
   
   
2. 
   
   5oz can evaporated milk
   
   
   
3. 
   
   1 box chocolate cake mix (devils food, double chocolate, doesn't matter what kind)
   
   
   
4. 
   
   One stick butter mellted
   
   
   
5. 
   
   1 cup chocolate chips
   
   
   
6. 
   
   mini cupcake holders
   
   
   

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Directions

1. Put aside 1/4 cup evaporated milk
2. In large bowl mix remaining milk, cake mix, and melted butter
3. Grease the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan.  Line with foil.  Grease the top and sides of the foil
4. Press half the cake mixture into the pan. It will be thick.  You can wet your fingers or a metal spatula to help you press it if needed.
5. Bake 8 min.
6. Melt caramels with 1/4 cup evaporated milk in microwave.  Stir until smooth.
7. Pour caramels over baked cake mix.
8. Sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over the caramel.
9. Distribute remaining cake mix on top.  You have to kind of crumble it around or break off little pieces and drop it on top. Pat down batter and try to push it around to cover. Dont worry if every spot isnt covered.
10. Baked at 350 for 18 minutes.
11. Cool. Put in fridge till cold.  DO NOT TRY TO CUT WHEN WARM!!!
12. Lift foil out of pan with brownies.
13. Peel off the foil and cut into small bieces on cutting board.
14. Put into the mini cupcake holders.  If you dont they may stick together when left out at room temp.

David had a good week!

David had a great week!

If he were here I would make this for him!

It is his Favorite!!!

I would love to give credit for this recipe...

If I am not mistaken it was in

Simple and Delicious Magazine from Taste of Home

you can go here for more information.  I really like it!

 

Fiesta Chicken

Ingredients

• 
  
  3 Cups cooked and cubed chicken breast  (short on time? buy a rotisseri chicken)
  
  
  
• 
  
  2 cans cream of chiken soup + a splash of milk to loosen it
  
  
  
• 
  
  1-16 oz tub of sour  cream
  
  
  
• 
  
  1/2 cup salsa (or to taste, some like it hot!)
  
  
  
• 
  
  1 can diced green chiliis (they are mild)
  
  
  
• 
  
  2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, (more if you want) save 3/4 cup
  
  
  
• 
  
  2 bell peppers diced ( I like to use different  colors-thense fiesta!)
  
  
  
• 
  
  1 onion chopped
  
  
  
• 
  
  Adoobo to taste ( I really like this stuff) [if you cannot get Adobo then go here she makes her own, so good!]
  
  
  
• 
  
  24 Corn tortilla sliced nto 1 inch strips
  
  
  

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl except for 3/4 cup of chees and tortilla stripss.  Add a splash of milk so it will blend better.
2. Spread some mixture on the bottom of a 9x13 pan. 
3. Add A layer of tortilla stripss.
4. Layer sauce agaian continue until all ingredients were used ending with sauce.
5. Sprink resered cheese on top.
6. Bake at 350 degrees until hot and bubbly approx. 35 to 45 min.

We serve with a nice salad and refried beans, sometimes when we have a big crowd we serve spanish rice.  If Arli is around I have no choice!

So get this party started! and enjoy!!!

Sunshine Kisses!

OH YUMMY!

I made these cookies on Sunday, I didn't have many ingredients to make other cookies or frosting for a cake. We were invited to a friends house for dinner and asked to bring dessert. I found this recipe and decided to give it the good ole' college try... everyone LOVED them! I modified them a bit because I only had white cake mix but I really think they turned out even better! Course, I might just be biased! ::smile::

Original Recipe for Sunshine Kisses (Pampered Chef Busy Mom's Cookbook)
Ingredients: 1 package (18-19 ounces) lemon cake mix
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons water
1/3 cup pecans, chopped; optional
Powdered sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Combine cake mix, egg, oil, and water in Classic Batter Bowl; stir with Mix 'N Scraper® until thoroughly combined. Mixture will be slightly dry.

2. Chop nuts with Food Chopper. Transfer nuts to Batter Bowl using Handy Scraper; mix well. Using Small Scoop drop level scoops of dough 2 inches apart onto flat Baking Stone.

3. Bake 13 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 3 minutes on Baking Stone; remove to stackable Cooling Rack. Repeat with remaining dough. Cool completely. Fill Flour/Sugar Shaker with powdered sugar. Sprinkle cookies with powdered sugar.

Yield: 3 dozen



OK...here is my version

Sunshine Kisses

Ingredients: 1 package (18-19 ounces) white cake mix
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons lemonade

Glaze
Powdered sugar
1 Tablespoon lemonade or lemon juice for a tangier glaze
2 drops yellow food coloring.

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Combine cake mix, egg, oil, and water in bowl; stir until thoroughly combined. Mixture will be slightly dry.

2. Using Small Scoop drop level scoops of dough 2 inches apart onto flat Baking Stone.

3. Bake 9 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 3 minutes on Baking Stone; remove to cooling rack. Repeat with remaining dough. Cool completely.

4. Mix powdered sugar and lemonade in a small bowl. When cookies are cool drizzle glaze over top.

Yield: 3 dozen

Our family loves hard boiled eggs! We love them deviled, in egg salad and just plain with salt and pepper. Any way you peel it, eggs are so yummy! (I couldn't resist the pun!)

One too many times in the past 22 years of marriage I have either under cooked or burned eggs I have been trying to hard boil. The smell of a burned 'boiled' egg is nasty and takes forever to get out of your house!

Fortunatly for me I found a really easy way to make the eggs so I don't have to babysit them while they are cooking.

• Fill the bottom of your pot with eggs, only put one layer otherwise they will crack.
• Cover with cold water.
• Put on high heat and bring to a rapid boil. Some recipes call for salt in the water, I have done it both ways and it doesn't seem to matter.
• Once water boils cover pot and remove from heat.
• In ten to twelve minutes you will have the perfect hard boiled eggs and they will not have that greenish gray ring around the yolk!

Yummy 7 Layer Bean Dip!!

We love this dip! I received a recipe book

"The Mormon Family Cookbook"

22 1/2 years ago for our wedding. Funny how something can be a family favorite for so long. I am often asked to bring this to parties, family dinners etc.

It is very simple and easy to double, which I do as a rule! You can never have too much!

This is the doubled recipe.

• 2-cans (16 oz) refried beans (add 1/2 tsp Adobo or garlic powder)
• 1-16 oz tub sour cream
• 1-package (1 oz) taco seasoning mix
• 3-large ripe avocados, pitted, peeled and mashed
• 1-tsp lemon juice
• 1-tsp Crystal hot sauce (Tabasco works also)
• -pepper and salt to taste
• 2-cups shredded Cheddar or Mexican cheese blend (8 oz)
• 1-can (2.25 oz) sliced ripe olives, drained (1/2 cup)
• 1-medium tomato, diced (3/4 cup)
• 4-green onions sliced
• Tortilla chips

1. Mix refried beans and adobo (or garlic powder). Spread on platter.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together sour cream and taco seasoning. Carefully spread over bean mixture, stopping 1" from edges.
3. Add lemon juice, Crystal hot sauce and salt and pepper to avocados, mix.
4. Carefully spread over sour cream mixture, leaving 1" from sides.
5. Layer cheese, tomatoes, olives and green onions.
6. Serve with tortilla chips

Salsa

We wanted a garden this year. Or so we thought. I am not a very good gardener, but we tried! Yeah US! I wanted a SALSA garden. Well we got it. Do you know how many jalapenos a jalapeno bush grows? Do you know you cant tell how hot they are by looking? And did you know that habaneros are the HOTTEST chiles you can grow? We thought we knew! Well our tomatoes weren't planted in a very sunny spot but they grew. The jalapenos BLOSSOMED as you might have guessed, and I am not sure where we planted the cilantro. . .hmmm

Needless to say we got some good, no GREAT salsa from our garden! Rick was amazing at chopping all the ingredients just right. The best part was he kept asking me for my expertise in salsa making. . . YOU GUESSED IT THE WORLD IS COMIN TO AN END! He is quite the salsa maker. . . just ask every one at this years Elders quorum BBQ!! Next year I am gonna research gardens a little better so we really have a wonderful crop of tomatoes (I know careful what you wish for. . .)

Yep, you guessed it me pretending to be cooking ( I was cooking just not at that moment see) and using an apron, so not such a great look! I will stick to changing into grubbies before cooking anything too messy!